|
PHNOM PENH, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Labor Ministry presented awards to 176 enterprises on Thursday for their successful work on HIV and AIDS response in the workplaces.
Labor Minister Ith Samheng delivered the awards to those enterprises in a wide range of sectors, including the garment industry, hospitality, banking, telecommunications and entertainment.
"The roles of the ministry's inspectors and the effort and action taken by the enterprises must continue to achieve the goal of ending AIDS," he said.
The awards recognized the important work that enterprises had undertaken in order to protect the rights of their workers and eliminated the existence of stigma and discrimination at workplaces.
"The enterprises receiving this award have shown a strong commitment not just to their workers, but to the Cambodian society as a whole. They stand as role models in showing how the workplace can be a pillar of sustainability and progress in the HIV response," said a press release at the ceremony.
Tun Sophorn, representative of International Labor Organization (ILO) Cambodia, said ILO was working closely with the ministry and others to assist enterprises in establishing HIV workplace committees, policies and programs to deliver HIV voluntary counselling and testing as well as other HIV services to workers.
Teng Kunthy, secretary general of the National AIDS Authority, said the HIV response remained a high priority for the Cambodian government.
"Cambodia has the ambition to achieve the goal of ending AIDS by 2025," he said.
According to the National AIDS Authority, HIV carrier rate among Cambodian adults, aged between 15 and 49 years, was 0.6 percent in 2015, down from 2.5 percent in 1998.
Currently, the Southeast Asian country has around 74,000 people living with HIV/AIDS.
