Cambodia starts to build Chinese-funded road in northwest

March 22, 2011
Xinhua

Cambodia on Monday broke ground for the construction of a China-funded 176-kilometer- road in the Northwestern part in order to facilitate travelling and trucking agricultural products to markets.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the road No. 57B was held Monday in Battambang province about 350 kilometers northwest of capital Phnom Penh.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue, and top government officials, diplomatic corps, locals and students.

The road will facilitate travelling among former-battlefield provinces of Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Pailin, the premier said during the ceremony.

Roads to protect Angkor from fires (sic!)

12 Mar 2010
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Seventeen new roads will provide quick access to Cambodia's Angkor complex in case of fires at the ancient temples, officials said Friday.

The roads will alleviate fears of damage to the country's greatest artistic treasure, especially during the dry season when blazes often break out, said Tan Sambu, an official of the Apsara Authority, the government agency that oversees the temples.

Tourism is a major source of foreign currency for cash-strapped Cambodia, which hosts nearly 1.5 million foreign tourists each year, mostly from South Korea, Japan and the United States. More than half of the tourists visit Angkor, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northwestern Siem Reap province.

The temples were built when Angkorian kings ruled over much of Southeast Asia between the ninth and 14th centuries.

Earlier this month, South Korea provided $9.2 million to build a new road that will circle the temple complex and reduce traffic in the area.A

Korea Expressway signs construction deal with Cambodia

Friday, February 26, 2010
The Korea Herald (South Korea)

Korea's state-run Korea Expressway Corp. said Friday it has signed a $2.65 million deal with the Cambodian government to improve and build new roadways for the Southeast Asian country.

The clinching of the deal came after Korea Expressway, in a consortium with Korea's Sambo Engineering Co., submitted a proposal to the Cambodian government for a road project there in October last year, it said.

The project calls for the consortium to design and supervise the improvement of two national highways and one local road and the construction of a detour in the Southeast Asian country. Completion of the project, expected to begin next month, is slated for June 2013, the company said in a statement.

Cambodia opens road building link to Thailand

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen opened Saturday a road building link to the Thai border in northwestern Cambodia.

The 117-kilometer long National Road No. 68, which runs from Kralanh district in Siem Reap province to O' Smach in Udor Meanchey province, will be completed in two years time.

Hun Sen said the construction and restoration of the road which costs 33 million U.S. dollars will be fully financed by the Royal Government of Cambodia to respond to the people's actual needs, in spite of the current global financial and economic crisis.

Thailand signed an agreement with Cambodia in August this year to provide loans amounting to some 41 million U.S. dollars for building this road, but Cambodia canceled it late last month, and instead used its own funding.

Hun Sen said he had identified the area as an economic pole, among Cambodia's other poles, as it is favorable for agriculture and tourism development.

"Thus, after the construction of the National Road No. 68 has been completed, this area will become an important and real economic pole in Cambodia," Hun Sen said.

He added that his government is firmly committed to the restoration and development of all sectors, especially the restoration, maintenance and development of transportation infrastructure which is the prioritized policy of his new fourth-term government beginning from 2008 through 2013.

He said the efforts in building infrastructure apply to Cambodia's slogan that says "wherever there is road there will be hope."

He added that this road network is located on two main corridors that serve both national and international transport purpose from western to eastern part.

The first corridor is the northern sub-corridor of the first southern corridor of the Greater Mekong Sub-region which runs through Laos and heads to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Kuwait loans Cambodia $546 mln, plans embassy

PHNOM PENH, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Kuwait has agreed to give Cambodia loans totalling $546 million to develop agriculture, build hydro-power facilities and construct roads, a Cambodian foreign ministry official said on Friday.

This is the second-biggest aid pledge ever received by Cambodia, after aid and loans totalling $601 million offered by China last year.

"This is showing a stronger relationship between Kuwait and Cambodia, both political and economic," Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Sin Bunthoeurn told Reuters late on Thursday after the ministry hosted bilateral ministerial talks.

He said they planned to open embassies early next year. The two countries have had diplomatic ties since 1997.

A Kuwaiti newspaper reported that Kuwait had leased rice fields in Cambodia to secure food supplies after Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah met Cambodian leaders earlier this month.

Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, paid his first official visit to Cambodia in April 2008 and Qatar plans to invest $200 million in Cambodian farmland.

Some $486 million from the Kuwaiti loan will be invested in irrigation systems and hydro-power on the Steung Sen river in the northeastern province of Kampong Thom.

The remaining $60 million will be used for building roads in the northwestern province of Battambang, a rice-growing area, Sin Bunthoeurn said.

Kuwait has signed more than $27 billion of investment agreements with nine Asian countries during an Asian tour this month, its finance minister was reported as saying on Aug. 17.

(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Chinese Pledge $55 Million for Roads [-after Cambodia's kowtow to "One-China Policy"]

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
01 February 2008

China and Cambodia signed a $55-million agreement Thursday to improve the national roads in the northeast.

The money was pledged at a signing ceremony during the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. China has been expanding its aid in the region and gave $600 million in aid to Cambodia in 2007.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said following a signing ceremony the money would be used to connect Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces.

“In previous years, China lent us $300 million with a low interest rate for infrastructure construction,” Hor Namhong said. “With that $300 million, we have had two bridges and four national roads constructed.”

Yang Jiechi said through an interpreter the two countries had also agreed to promote friendly relations and bilateral cooperation.

“We highly appreciate that Cambodia upholds the one-China policy, opposing any such claim as Taiwan’s independence,” he said.

Hor Namhong reiterated the Cambodia position: “Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China that cannot be separated, no matter what tactics they use.”

Taiwanese bids for independence could destabilize the region, Hor Namhong said.

Thailand considers lending US$41 mn to Cambodia

BANGKOK, Jan 10 (TNA) – Thailand is considering giving financial assistance to the neighbouring country of Cambodia for the development of roads in that country, according to Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanond.

Gen. Surayud on Thursday presided over the first meeting in 2008 of Thailand's committee on neighbouring countries development cooperation at Government House.

He said after the meeting that the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) had earlier proposed many cooperation projects between Thailand and its neighbouring countries including construction of roads and bridges, cargo transportation and arms maintenance projects.

The committee agreed to forge ahead with a plan to lend Bt1.4 billion(US$41 million) to Cambodia to build a 100 km road from the Chongjom border pass in the Thai border province of Surin to Cambodia.

The projects will be submitted to the cabinet for approval at its next meeting, he said.

Opposition MP Claims Vietnamese Road Building Trespasses On Cambodian Territory

15 Nov 07
By Sovannarith
Samleng Yuveakchon Khmer (Voice of Khmer Youth)
Translated from Khmer and posted online

A reliable source of information contended that Vietnam recently built a road that intruded more than 10 kilometers deep into Cambodian territory of Mondulkiri province. Cambodia's Border Affairs Commission [CBAC] headed by Var Kim Hong that plans to soon go to the border to inspect the situation of the border markers installing process has had no reaction to this report. Moreover, the provincial authorities seemed to be trying to cover up this news, an act that has generated varied opinions because this is not the first time that Vietnam has bulldozed land and cut roads into Cambodian territory.

[Opposition MP] Son Chhay said that the Vietnamese authorities frequently built roads along the border, some of them straying deep into Cambodian territory. The construction work has been going on day and night, said the MP who personally witnessed these activities of the Vietnamese authorities. Son Chhay went on to say that the road building activities that encroached into Cambodian territory were in full swing in the provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri. MP Son Chhay said that he used to seek intervention from the government, especially from Var Kim Hong's CBAC but has received no positive responses as nothing has been done to stop these encroaching activities of the Vietnamese authorities.

It is claimed that the provincial authorities, especially Deputy Provincial Governor Keo Han--who reportedly crosses back and forth between Cambodia and Vietnam two-three times a week--have been trying to cover up these road bulldozing activities in Mondulkiri province at this time. This has elicited more suspicion because the local authorities who are aware of such incident should have reported to the specialized department so that the latter would also be aware of what was taking place at the border. However, Kev Han instead has pretended not to know anything while it is reported that he has been making frequent trips to Vietnam but has feigned ignorance of what was going on.

The CBAC chairman said that Cambodia had plans to install the border markers with the Vietnamese side along the borderline in the country's northeast encompassing the provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri and this operation at points already agreed upon would be completed by the next dry season.

CBAC Chairman Var Kim Hong affirmed that two teams of CBAC technical experts will be dispatched to Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces in December this year.

"Two teams will go to Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri. We have set goals for them to achieve. If one team encounters any problem in one place we will change its objectives.. . and let the other team take over. Besides, what we have already agreed upon we will complete it in the coming dry season," said Var Kim Hong.

In September 2007 the Cambodian and Vietnamese border commissions reached agreement with each other and succeeded in planting five border markers along the border of Ratanakiri opposite the Vietnamese province of Kontum.

Li Sovannara, commander of the border defense battalion of the Ratanakiri provincial forces, confirmed: "We have managed to plant only five markers, No. 17 to 21. On our side these markers are in Andong Meas district and on the Vietnamese side they are in the adjacent province of Kantum."

The CBAC chairman, however, did not specify how many markers are remaining to be planted or when they are going to be planted between now and the next dry season. However, he affirmed that there were some disagreements that have stalled the process, especially regarding the locations of the border markers at the international border gate in O Ya Dav district, Ratanakiri province, and at Dak Dam in Mondulkiri province.

Son Chhay, president of the National Assembly's Committee No. 5 from the Sam Rainsy Party quota, also affirmed: "We observed that Vietnam was building a road along the border around the clock when we went there in January earlier this year and that this road trespassed upon Cambodia. Because of this we are very worried that the marker planting in these two provinces would be problematic because the planting was made without the participation of the National Assembly's commission and some national media. There is suspicion that the operation might not be correctly carried out."

Cambodia started planting historic border markers with the Vietnamese side for the first time in September 2006 at the international border gate of Bavet in Svay Rieng province as part of a project to install more than 300 markers along the 1,270-kilometer borderline with Vietnam. So far, according to Son Chhay, only 20 percent of this operation has been done.

Road to Preah Vihear Temple to be built in November

Thursday, August 23, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Phai Siphan, an information officer of the Council of Ministers, told the Reasmei Kampuchea newspaper on 21 August that the road to reach the Cambodian Preah Vihear Temple recreation area will be built by the Cambodian government staring in November of this year. Phai Siphan said that the construction of this road will provide a new venue to attract tourists. Sun Chanthol, the minister of public works and transportation, indicated that the length of the portion of the road between Tbeng Meanchey (located in Preah Vihear province) and Preah Vihear Temple is about 118-kilometer long, and the construction site for this road will be initiated with borrowed funds from a loan package provided China to build the Takhmao Bridge. Sun Chanthol quoted Hun Sen as saying that Cambodia needs to have her own roads (to Preah Vihear Temple). Hun Sen said that the visit of the temple by tourists crossing through Thailand is very difficult because of Cambodia’s dependence on Thailand, therefore Hun Sen is determined to have Cambodia build her own roads. After the road construction, Thailand can decide to open or shut down the international gate as it wants, but Cambodia must build her own roads to reach Preah Vihear Temple.