Battered Border Road Looks for a Revamp

By Ros Sothea, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
17 December 2009

An old motorbike with two large baskets affixed bounces slowly down a bumpy road in Kampot province. The poor condition of the road, which runs to the Prek Chak checkpoint on the Vietnam border, makes it nearly impossible to use, and this driver is one of the few people trying it these days.

Locals, government officials and economists say the ill repair of Kampot’s Road 33 does more than slow motorcycles: it slows trade and economic growth.

“There is no betterment in my business, because the road is too bad, where I have to spend more time and money both for traveling,” said Hun Tan, 51, whose entire business is the transporting of cow collars and plastic sacks from Vietnam for sale in Kampot’s market.

Every two or three days, Hun Tan drives Road 33 to Vietnam and back, netting around 30,000, or $7, per trip. The bad roads, he said recently, mean “no progress in trade activities or tourism.”

The Prek Chak border crossing, which links Kampot to Vietnam’s An Giang province, is a potential economic route for what analysts call the Mekong’s Southern Economic Corridor.

“Business remains the same, and people are still poor, because nothing has been improved these past few years,” said Chiv Sothea, deputy chief of CamControl’s Prek Chak operation.

Tun Chanty, who works in the customs office, said only 10 to 20 people cross the border for business purposes each day, putting the trade value at only $6 million a year.

Cambodia exports about $1 million worth of goods each year, including seafood, mangoes and vegetables, he said. It imports around $5 million in beans, oil and spices.

To boost trade, Prek Chak was made an international border point in 2008, but it remains one of the quietest of crossings, thanks to 15 kilometers of Road 33.

The quiet border benefits only around 18,000 of the province’s 600,000 people, said Ouk Sarath, secretary-general of Kampot municipality. That number will rise if Road 33 is fixed, he said.

Construction on the road is expected to begin next year, with $15 million from the Asian Development Bank and the Australian government, matched with $3.7 million from the government.

A portion of the funds will be used to build new checkpoints, including at Prek Chak.

Within five years, said Eric Sidgwick, a senior economist for the ADB, people will benefit from increased trade activities, which will help the government be less reliant on the garment industry.

Bad roads mar Khmer tourism

Thursday September 27, 2007
Don Ross
Bangkok Post

Tanin Rittavirun is a travel agent, who turned his love for bicycles into a business, but still pedals for fun.

I bumped into him the other day with a bike on each arm, manipulating his way from a popular bike shop on Soi Sarasin to a minivan parked at kerbside.

As usual he was in a hurry.

''I'm leading a group overland to Siem Reap,'' he called.

He pointed to one of the bikes. ''This my favourite I rode all round Thailand on it, but I won't be taking it to Siem Reap.''

For the task ahead, Tanin and his group will ride rough and ready mountain bikes along a road that if we are to believe press reports is sealed and as smooth as a snooker table.

In reality, the 155-km journey over moonscape highways five and six, from Aranyaprathet to Siem Reap, takes five to six hours by the most powerful and robust minibus.

Technically, the two highways are the trunk route to Cambodia's top selling tourist destination, but drivers prepared to tackle the bone jarring road are more likely to view it as an obstacle race, where the sole objective is to reach Siem Reap before sundown in one piece.

So cycling the route is not such a bad idea. At least the bikes can ride around the potholes and find a way across bridges that have been reduced to two timber planks placed strategically across a gaping hole in the steel girders.

If Tanin and his staff at Bike and Travel were not having fun with this journey they would probably reach the fabled temples of Angkor Wat in a dawn-to-dusk epic ride from the Thai border. This would compare with minibuses that cover the same distance in six to eight hours. Instead they will do the trip in three easy 50-km stages, stopping at a guesthouse in Sisophon, the junction town, where highways five and six meet and again at the small town of Kralanh.

Whether you go by bus or bike, you will ultimately arrive at Siem Reap, dreaming only of a hot bath to wash off the layers of a persistent red dust. You will still be coughing grit a week later, wondering if newspaper reporters saw a shimmering mirage of a modern highway the day they penned a story on overland travel to Siem Reap.

These two important highways are a hotchpotch of potholed and seriously damaged roads _ long unpaved sections, a construction site in the neighbourhood of Kralanh and more than 20 kilometres of gravel and dust to the outskirts of Siem Reap.

Officially, loans from the Asian Development Bank secured some years back should have given this province a paved highway by 2005. Even a year ago, government officials were still optimistically referring to the finishing touches to bridges and the last few kilometres of road paving to complete the task. Travellers view this as a convenient hallucination. Highways five and six are literally falling apart.

Until the highways are sealed and bridges are monsoon-proof, airlines that fly tourists to Cambodia's number one destination enjoy a bonanza. There are even cynical folk, who view the dusty road, and claim airlines have successfully convinced government officials to take their time.

Funds go to improving Siem Reap's airport, while there are plans to add golf courses and five-star resorts to serve high-spending tourists, who fly from cities in Asia.

In theory, lip-service is paid to the concept of overland travel, but tourism officials are also aware that once the road is completed it will open the floodgate to low priced bus tourism and even day trippers. Not everyone wants to see that happen to the Angkor Wat historical complex.

Airlines are probably not concerned about a road project that at best would allow Bangkok residents to drive to Siem Reap in six to seven hours. Fuel costs and the delays drivers will inevitably face at the Aranyaprathet check point will continue to discourage a tourist exodus long after the two Cambodian highways are widened and sealed.

If that does not encourage drivers to leave their cars at home, the arrival of low fares through budget airlines will do the trick.

Ultimately, the country's aviation policy makers will allow low-cost airlines to serve Siem Reap from most key cities in the region. There is also talk of a group of investors from Korea, reincarnating a national airline. The country has relied almost entirely on foreign airlines to fuel the growth in tourism since 2001 when the national airline, Royal Air Cambodge, was declared bankrupt.

Although it is difficult to sift through rumours and speculation, there is evidence to suggest that at least two groups of investors are vying for the rights to start a regional airline, either as a national flag carrier, or with strong government backing.

This November will see more airlines flying non-stop services to Siem Reap from cities in Taiwan, China, Korea and even Japan. Flights will also increase from Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong and the possibility of low-cost airlines adding Siem Reap to their portfolio is not out of the question.

These factors will make it even more difficult for a national airline to establish a turf.

Cambodia's tourism policy for obvious reasons is focused on earning top dollars from the people who cross its borders. So far this year the country attracted 1.1 million tourists of which around 680,000 visited Siem Reap mainly to visit Angkor Wat. The country targets 3 million tourists within three years with about 70% visiting Siem Reap and the balance going to Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, an emerging beach destination.

The drive for dollars is linked to people staying longer in Cambodia, spending time in flash five-star hotels, shelling out on US$20 entrance tickets to Angkor Wat. The heritage complex alone earned US$16 million so far this year in ticket sales.

In that environment, cheap bus or family excursions overland might not be a priority for Siem Reap's tourism planners. Could that explain the pain on highways five and six?