[Acknowledgements Omitted]
It is an honour to be here in Phnom Penh – and to join you, on my first visit to Cambodia as Minister for International Development.
I have the pleasure to speak today to a partnership that matters – to Australia, to Cambodia, and to the future of our region.
The partnership between Cambodia and Australia is one which has been built over many decades.
It is a partnership grounded in respect and strengthened by the practical cooperation we undertake together every day.
And it is a partnership with people at the centre of it.
Whether that be our people-to-people links – forged through education, tourism and culture.
Or the Australians of Cambodian heritage, and Australians living in Cambodia.
Or the Cambodian people, in all their diversity, touched by our development cooperation.
All of this is part of the partnership between Cambodia and Australia.
And it is a partnership which matters to Australia.
It matters because many of the challenges before all of us – such as economic shocks, climate change, transnational crime and health security – cannot be overcome by any one country alone.
And as much as today's visit is about looking forward – I hope you will permit me to start by first looking back to 2020.
It might feel like a distant memory, when we were all in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic and struggling to find a way through.
Governments were grappling to find the right balance of responses that would save lives while protecting livelihoods – a mix of lockdowns, curfews, stay at home orders, border closures, quarantine, masking rules, social distancing requirements.
The impacts of the pandemic were reverberating around the world – pushing health care systems past their limit, bringing supply chains to a grinding halt, decimating jobs, and unwinding decades of social and economic progress.
In Cambodia though, something incredible happened.
In June of that year, the COVID-19 Cash Transfer Programme for Poor and Vulnerable Household in Cambodia was launched.
And over the next two years, the Cambodian Government made rapid, targeted cash transfers to millions of vulnerable people.
It meant families were able to put food on the table.
It meant pregnant mothers were able to access critical healthcare and medicines for themselves or their children.
It meant people living with disabilities would still be able to pay rent and preserve their dignity.
It was the largest cash transfer initiative ever implemented in Cambodia's history.
And it was only possible because there was already a strong social protection system in place in Cambodia before the crisis hit.
The COVID19 cash transfer program was built on the foundations of the IDPoor program.
This program identified and registered poor and vulnerable households.
It set up the systems and processes which made it easier for vulnerable households to access social transfers, healthcare, and other benefits.
Australia, in collaboration with Germany, is proud to have worked with Cambodia to establish and grow the IDPoor program over the past ten or so years.
It is a program which still provides services and assistance to vulnerable households across Cambodia today.
And it is just one part of Australia's development partnership with Cambodia – a decades long partnership.
Decades of respect, and trust, and listening to and working with Cambodia towards your national priorities, development, and growth.
This includes working together to build robust, effective, and responsive social protection systems – that ensure no one is left behind, and that protect hard-earned development gains when shocks hit.
The conflict in the Middle East is at risk of escalating, with the economic shocks reverberating far beyond the region.
We are all already feeling the pressures from increased energy and food prices and the supply volatilities, with a possibility this pressure may soon become even more acute.
And the greatest impacts will fall on the most vulnerable or marginalised in our communities.
We are living in uncertain times. And as we look ahead, we know that the world will face more shocks.
Whether that be pandemics, climate disasters or conflict.
Each will test the resilience of communities and governments.
Knowing what is ahead, we must continue to invest in our social protection systems.
And so today I am proud to announce that Australia is committing a further three million Australian dollars to expand the second phase of the Improving Social Protection and Health project.
This new funding will enable more technical assistance, policy analysis, advice and modelling, so that Cambodia is better able to respond to current and future shocks.
This is partnership in action.
Systems that respond quickly. Institutions that are resilient. Policy that reaches people, particularly the most vulnerable.
Australia doesn't take our partnership with Cambodia for granted.
Partnership to us means listening to your priorities and ambitions.
Partnership to us means showing up, even when times are tough.
At a time when some other partners have reduced their development budgets, we have made a decision to sustain ours.
This year we will deliver an estimated 94.4 million Australian dollars in development assistance in Cambodia.
We are proud to be one of Cambodia's largest and longest-standing development partners.
With programs spanning across sectors including in health, agriculture, infrastructure, education and security cooperation.
Because we know that investing in Cambodia's success is also an investment in our shared future.
Australia's commitment is clear. We will work with Cambodia, as partners, to build a region which is peaceful, stable and prosperous.
It is a partnership of nearly 75 years. And as we look forward, it is a partnership I know will continue for decades more.
Thank you and arkun chran.