After the arrival of the Phnom Penh delegates in Busan City on November 17, 2011, in the afternoon of the same date, Mr HUR Nam-Sik, Mayor of Busan City had welcomed H.E Governor KEP Chuk Tema and Madam as well as the delegates. In the meeting, both parties expressed their pleasure to the cooperation achievement which aged only 3 years old. It would be reminded that in August 2008, H.E Governor had started the relationship by conducting a business trip to Busan City and then in June 2009, the Memorandum of Understanding of Establishment Sister-City relationship was signed by Mr HUR-Nam Sik and H.E Governor.
Starting from a positive cooperation, Busan City, during the official visit of Phnom Penh delegates, had formally organized a handing over ceremony of 8 fire fighting trucks and ambulance. H.E Governor had disclosed about the development process of Phnom Penh under wise leadership of Samdech Techo HUN SEN and especially in 2010, Phnom Penh was doubly enlarged its scale (from 378Km2 to 678Km2) in paralleled with gradual population growth. Thus, the challenges were traffic flow along public roads which urged the Capital Hall to set up public transport system (city bus) aiming to facilitate the citizens’ journey particularly within Phnom Penh territory. Moreover, H.E Governor had requested Busan City to establish a direct flight from Busan – Phnom Penh; meanwhile, this propose was welcomed by his counterpart and mentioned that the technical working team would conduct its feasibility and soon after the success, the Air Busan would be launched officially. On the other hand, Phnom Penh had also suggested for good facilitation in every aspect in order to allow technical officers to further understand each other aiming to strengthen friendship and cooperation more successfully.
As response, Mr HUR Nam-Sik had conveyed his surprise and unbelief to the progress of Phnom Penh within a short period and he strongly believed that both cities would enhance further cooperation in private sector, particularly in tourism field. He mentioned that he would continuously focus on the advancement of Phnom Penh thus Busan citizens would be able to partake more in the development of this city in the future. Additionally, he proudly added that he was honor to receive a medal of development of the Kingdom of Cambodia from Samdech Prime Minister HUN SEN and Busan city as well as its citizens were really glad to make friendship with Phnom Penh, the long historical city of Cambodia and expected that Busan would become a development partner of Phnom Penh in this 21st century.
Then, both parties had led their subordinates to participate in the handover ceremony and sign on agreement of transferring fire trucks and exchanging technology (referring to MoU signed in 2009 between both cities) with participation of relevant agencies of Korea such as Busan Chamber of Commerce, Busan Fire Fighting and Rescue Authority, city officers and for the Cambodia part, all delegates led by H.E Governor and the high representative of Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN SEN to decorate a medal (Medal of Sahakmetrei in Thebden Class) with the presence of 9 Cambodian students who are training in stock exchange in Busan city. Besides, H.E Governor and Madam had taken a chance to have a talk with those students at the end of the ceremony and also provided them 1,000 USD as his personal donation in order to support their study abroad.