Secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia Vath Chamroeun yesterday moved to dispel rumours of the cancellation of the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games after some media outlets reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen had decided to cancel the Kingdom’s hosting of the regional sporting showpiece, preparations for which are well underway.

Chamroeun yesterday decried such reports as “air pollution”, which were factually wrong and misunderstood remarks the prime minister made in a speech on Chroy Changvar on Monday at the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a bridge across the Tonle Sap river for National Road 5.

Vath Chamroeun told The Post yesterday: “I listened to [the prime minister’s] statement and he [only] said that before 2023 we could not host the event, but some newspapers [misunderstood] and reported that Samdech had cancelled [Cambodia’s] right to host the SEA Games in 2023.

“The misunderstanding from some newspapers, which appear to have not listened [properly] to what he said and not professionally verified the leader’s quotes, causes air pollution because we are smoothly developing and preparing what Samdech and the Royal Government of Cambodia have put forward for SEA Games 2023 preparation.”

The secretary-general added: “The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports as well as the NOCC have been positively reforming technical areas and national federations. We are preparing infrastructures, which are being built smoothly and efficiently.”

During his speech on Monday, the Prime Minister said: “If we had wanted to host the SEA Games before 2023, we would have had to cut expenditure on public investment in order to build sports facilities, [money] which could build many bridges.”

Translated by In Sopheng