Prime Minister Hun Sen has renewed his call for authorities to stay focused on resolving land disputes quickly and effectively and to provide the public with necessary services as efficiently as possible.

The call came as he met with 3,457 officials of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) from Kandal province on December 3 at the CPP headquarters in Phnom Penh.

At the meeting, Hun Sen, who is also the president of the CPP, congratulated members of the commune councils in the province on receiving the support of the people in the recent election.

He commended civil servants and members of the armed forces for striving to maintain political stability, security, social order and for curbing the spread of Covid-19.

He also reminded those members of the CPP who have roles in government to serve the nation and the people by staying focused on maintaining security and social order. They should implement the safe village-commune policy and clamp down on offences such as robberies and drug dealing to provide safety to the public.

“The authorities must pay close attention to resolving land disputes quickly and effectively and should provide the public with services as quickly as possible to avoid causing problems. We must all continue to work to curb the spread of Covid-19 and other contagious diseases,” he said.

“I encourage the authorities to try as hard to resolve disputes outside of the court system,” he added.

CPP central committee member and chairperson of the provincial CPP committee Mao Phearun said the meeting highlighted the close attention the CPP president paid to CPP members in the whole of Kandal.

“The Kandal provincial authorities have maintained, protected and strengthened security and public order, improving the safety of the public. At all levels, the administration of the province has collaborated to make the situation better,” he added.

Am Sam Ath, deputy director of rights group LICADHO, said that the meeting was a good opportunity to remind the authorities and CPP members to stay focused on finding solutions to land disputes.

“It is good that the prime minister encourages authorities at all levels to pay close attention to resolving people’s land disputes. We know that many people, especially farmers, depend on their land to grow rice and people need land to build houses. If no timely solutions are offered to them, then this is the opposite of the government’s policy of alleviating poverty,” he added.