[Thai] Transport Ministry to launch new Thai-Cambodian rail route in 2013 [-It's just a transit point for Thailand to reach Vietnam]

Saturday, 16 June 2012
By NNT
Pattaya Mail

BANGKOK, 16 June 2012 - Thailand is set to open a new rail route, which connects the country with Cambodia, to further boost the transportation connection with Vietnam.

Transport Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan said on Friday that Cambodia has recently asked Thailand to build a railway bridge to connect the country's Aranyaprathet District with its Poipet District.

Mr. Charupong stated that the project, which will link the two neighbors' railway service, is expected to be completed in 2013.

China may fund Cambodia-Vietnam rail

A tuk-tuk crosses railway tracks on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last year. Photograph: Heng Chivoan/Phnom Penh Post

Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Rann Reuy
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia was in discussions with the Chinese government on funding for a 250-kilometre stretch of rail line between Phnom Penh and Vietnam, in what Cambodian officials yesterday called a move away from a “complicated” Asian Development Bank loan.

Va Sim Sorya, director general at the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, said the government could do without the requirements tagged to ADB loans, and fund the project with up to US$600 million in Chinese backing.

“China doesn’t have so many conditions, but Chinese technicians are still well-studied,” he said yesterday at a workshop on infrastructure, although he did not specify which conditions were undesirable.

Interest rates on ADB concessional loans averaged an annual 1.32 per cent after grace periods, according to data compiled by NGO Forum for Cambodia last year.

China’s concessional lending held the highest rates from any institution or country at an average 1.83 per cent per year.

China to pay for most of 257km Cambodia-Vietnam rail link

Jul 26, 2011

HANOI (VIET NAM NEWS/ANN) -- A feasibility study on the construction of a 257km railway linking Cambodia and Vietnam shows it will cost at least US$686 million, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

The railway will be part of an intra-Asian railway that runs from Singapore to China via Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam.

Under a scheme announced in 2008 to develop an intra-Asian railway, China has offered to contribute US$500 million to build the Cambodia-Vietnam stretch of the railway.

The overall cost estimate by the Third Railway Survey and Design Institute from the Chinese Railway Ministry which began the study in July, 2009.

All railroads lead to Hanoi ... at a cost of $686 mln

$686 mln needed to build Cambodia-Vietnam rail route


7/21/2011
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

A 257-kilometer railway route connecting Cambodia and Vietnam will cost US$686 million, not including compensation to be paid to people that the project will displace.

The Vietnam News Agency quoted a Cambodian press release as saying Thursday the route would run between Kampong Speu in Cambodia and Tay Ninh Province in Vietnam.

While the project awaits approval from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, officials have not said if the country can afford its costs, the news source reported.

Cambodia and Vietnam agree rail link: Foreign Minister

Hor Namhong

Sunday, November 09, 2008

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia and Vietnam have signed a deal to link their railways, Cambodia's foreign minister said Saturday, helping revive long-running plans to link Asia by rail.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said China would help Cambodia with the railroad link to Vietnam, which will cost more than 500 million dollars.

"China has promised to build the railroad from Phnom Penh to Vietnam as part of the project to create a link from Singapore to Kunming in China," Hor Namhong said on his return from regional meetings in Hanoi, Vietnam.

"The railroads are very important for Cambodia's economy because we can then export goods to other southeast Asian countries at low cost," he told reporters at Phnom Penh International airport.

Cross-border trade between Cambodia and Vietnam totalled 1.7 billion dollars in the first eight months of this year, Hor Namhong added.

Cambodia is linked to its western neighbour Thailand by a track that is no longer in use.

Cambodia's civil war only ended in the 1990s, and trains throughout the impoverished nation crawl along dilapidated tracks.

It has long been a dream to connect Asia by rail, and many of the gaps in the railway are in Southeast Asia, with only Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand operating cross-border links.

The Asian Development Bank has stepped in with funds to help overhaul Cambodia's railways, a project many hope will be finished within the next few years.