Feature: Chinese company ensures high maintenance of stadium for SEA Games in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Hok Voeun, a maintenance member of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation Ltd. (CSCEC), has routinely checked the lighting system and equipment at the Morodok Techo National Stadium to ensure the stadium's smooth operation for the ongoing Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Cambodia.

The CSCEC is currently providing general maintenance services to the China-aided stadium, which is the centerpiece venue for the 32nd SEA Games that Cambodia is playing host for the first time in 64 years.

Located about 18 km on the northern outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh, the 60,000-seater stadium successfully hosted the elaborate opening ceremony of the games on May 5, and is serving as the major site for the football, swimming, and track and field competitions, among others. It is also scheduled to host the closing ceremony of the games on May 17.

Voeun said he is proud to be part of the maintenance team and is pleased to see the regional sporting event running smoothly.

"I'm very excited to see the games being organized at this huge and beautiful stadium, which is an invaluable asset for our younger generations," he told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"I feel very happy to work here, and my salary is also decent," he said. "Working with Chinese colleagues always goes smoothly because they value our Cambodian staff and we always show our mutual respect and love each other like friends."

Liu Yong, head of the CSCEC's maintenance team for the Morodok Techo National Stadium project, said the team has been excellently maintaining the water supply, power supply, fire-fighting equipment, monitoring system, and air-conditioning system at the stadium.

"We have trained local maintenance staff many times, and have told them how to operate those pieces of equipment during the real large-scale sporting events," he told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"During the games, when the teams of athletes arrived, we also sent some volunteers to give them some simple introductions and explanations in order to ensure that the stadium and the games can run normally and smoothly," Liu said.

Cambodian Tourism Minister Thong Khon, who is also the president of the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, commended the CSCEC for its high responsibility, saying that the stadium was the fruit of close cooperation between Cambodia and China under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

"The stadium is a great achievement in Cambodia's sports sector and a new symbol of the unbreakable ironclad friendship between Cambodia and China," he said.

The biennial multi-sport event has brought together a total of 10,890 athletes, coaches, arbitrators, and officials from 11 Southeast Asian countries, seeing athletes compete in 579 events across 36 sports, according to the Cambodia SEA Games Organizing Committee.