Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday expressed regret over the passing of Keng Vansak, the man who invented the Khmer typewriter and was hailed as a Cambodian scholar.
Keng Vansak died last week in a hospital in Paris of lung failure, at 84.
“There is much regret that he passed away,” Hun Sen told a group of students in Phnom Penh, adding he had been prepared to bring Keng Vansak back to Cambodia.
Keng Vansak left Cambodia in 1974 and had never returned.
During the same speech, Hun Sen predicted he would remain prime minister until 2013, saying he would then only be 61.