By Kay Kimsong
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
A Chinese company has put 25 electric vehicles in service inside the Angkor archeological park, and has set such a low launch price for the service that local taxi drivers say it threatens their livelihoods.
On Thursday, Yeeher Development started the service on three routes inside the park with vehicles that can each accommodate five tourists.
The company and Apsara Authority—the government agency managing Angkor—have set the price at $6 per person, said company spokesman Huy Leng. But the launch price is $2 per person for the opening trial period, he said.
Taxi drivers, who charge tourists around $20 per day to be taken around the park, cannot compete, said Kim Phally, president of the Taxi Transportation Association in Siem Reap.
"We are Siem Reap people and can't live without serving tourists— [with that price] we face losing our jobs," he said.
About 330 taxi drivers plan to write to Prime Minister Hun Sen about the new electric vehicles, he said.
"In a free market, price competition is normal," said Soeung Kong, Apsara Authority deputy director general, adding that the electric vehicles will also help protect the environment.
Gasoline fumes have been mentioned several times as a potential threat to the monuments by the International, Coordinating Committee of Angkor, which includes Apsara and donors. Air pollution, plus heavy traffic on the park's dusty roads, led Apsara to prohibit large buses in the park earlier this year. Now only medium-size buses are allowed into the park.
Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said that he didn’t believe that the electric vehicles would have much of an impact, as the service will only operate inside the park.
Thousands of taxi, motorcycle taxi and three-wheeler tuk-tuk drivers, who depend on tourists for their living, have protested each time the issue of electric vehicles has come up in the last few years.
On Thursday, Yeeher Development started the service on three routes inside the park with vehicles that can each accommodate five tourists.
The company and Apsara Authority—the government agency managing Angkor—have set the price at $6 per person, said company spokesman Huy Leng. But the launch price is $2 per person for the opening trial period, he said.
Taxi drivers, who charge tourists around $20 per day to be taken around the park, cannot compete, said Kim Phally, president of the Taxi Transportation Association in Siem Reap.
"We are Siem Reap people and can't live without serving tourists— [with that price] we face losing our jobs," he said.
About 330 taxi drivers plan to write to Prime Minister Hun Sen about the new electric vehicles, he said.
"In a free market, price competition is normal," said Soeung Kong, Apsara Authority deputy director general, adding that the electric vehicles will also help protect the environment.
Gasoline fumes have been mentioned several times as a potential threat to the monuments by the International, Coordinating Committee of Angkor, which includes Apsara and donors. Air pollution, plus heavy traffic on the park's dusty roads, led Apsara to prohibit large buses in the park earlier this year. Now only medium-size buses are allowed into the park.
Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, said that he didn’t believe that the electric vehicles would have much of an impact, as the service will only operate inside the park.
Thousands of taxi, motorcycle taxi and three-wheeler tuk-tuk drivers, who depend on tourists for their living, have protested each time the issue of electric vehicles has come up in the last few years.
4 comments:
Sorry no sympathy for the moto drivers on this one. The Angkor site has become a disgusting cloud of fumes and exhaust in some places. The busses and the moto's should all be banned from anywhere beyond the main entrance where you pick up the pass.
Having small electic busses or the little electric bikes is a great idea. It will make the area cleaner, quieter, and safer. It will also make Angkor more attractive to tourists.
Moto drivers will just have to find another way to make money from Angkor.
The Hun Sen, and Sokimex of Hanoi, should try to fit local people in the new projects, don;t just bring Chinese or Vietnamese to took over Cambodia.
In America when a big buiding or businesses move in to a neightborhood, they have to give some apartments with low rental to the poor in the neightborhood and job to the local by training them.
Do Ah Hun Sen make any deal to help poor people that fotreing invester come to destroy their livelyhood!
I changed my job from hardware to software engineer. Sorry taxi drivers, you will need to learn how to drive electric cars.
Donot sorry teach them you moron. You are not engineer you are Viet Name spy, Sok Kong (Sokimex monkey)!!!!!! You viet Cong your morther is cursing you!!!!!!!!!! Ah tayhoung!
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