Hun Sen's reminder: Cambodia needs $500 million to build the railroad line between Cambodia and Vietnam

$500 million needed to link Cambodia to Vietnam?
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks at the ground breaking ceremony of a new railway at Serey Sophon town in Banthey Meachey province, 469km (291 miles) northwest of Phnom Penh, February 18, 2008. Cambodia launched on Monday a $73 million project for the restoration and reconstruction of over 600 km of railway track which will become part of the rail transportation route linking Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to Kunming, China. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Railway gets a new life

18 Feb 2008
By Ky Soklim
Cambodge Soir
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

On Monday morning, the authorities have officially inaugurated the restoration site for a railroad line. The restoration will involve 552 km of railway, and will cost $73 million. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), OPEC, Malaysia, and the Cambodian government will finance this ambitious project.

Seriously damaged by the civil war, railways in the kingdom will find a new youth. On Monday 18 February, in the province of Banteay Meanchey, the government has officially proceeded to the launch of the restoration work for a portion of the network, covering a distance of 552 km. These railways will connect Phnom Penh to Poipet (386 km) and Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville (266 km). The restoration of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville line will take 23 months, whereas the Phnom Penh-Poipet line will take 22 months.

The total cost will be $73 million. The Cambodian government will finance $15.2 million, the ADB $42 million, OPEC $13 million, and Malaysia $2.8 million. Haruhiko Kuroda, ADB president, is satisfied about this project: “This even shows the importance of the government policy for the return to prosperity in the kingdom.”

The Australian company Toll Holding obtained a 32-year concession for the railway network in Cambodia [KI-Media: Could this explain the presence of Kith Meng at the inauguration?]. A French-Belgium-Thai consortium will take care of the restoration project. The authorities hope that these improvements will lead to development of the transport of goods.

“The railways play an important role in the trade between our country and Thailand. They are of main importance as part of the trans-border railroad system,” Sun Chanthol, the minister of public works and transport, explained. This line will link, in 2015, Singapore to Kunming in China, crossing Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma and Laos. Hun Sen took care to remind during the inauguration that: “$500 million is needed to build the railway line between Cambodia and Vietnam.”

Hun Sen failed to mention that his cronies and relatives control the distribution of gasoline in Cambodia

Cambodian prime minister criticizes OPEC

Mon, 08 Oct 2007
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen railed at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Monday in response to recent attacks by political opponents at home over the country's high cost of gasoline. The price of gasoline hovers at just above a dollar a litre in an impoverished nation where hundreds of thousands of people earn less than a dollar a day.

"A few days ago there was a man who claimed he would decrease the price of gasoline (by 25 per cent) if he won the election. For me, if OPEC decreased the price of oil to 25 dollars a barrel, I will decrease the price of gasoline (by 50 per cent) or more," Hun Sen told a graduation ceremony in the capital.

"The best way is to ensure political stability in Cambodia first," he added.

The comments appeared to be a direct swipe at opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who held an informal meal catering to hundreds of the capital's thousands of motorbike taxi drivers at his Sam Rainsy Party headquarters last week and criticized the country's hefty petrol prices.

World oil prices are currently hovering at around the 80 dollar per barrel mark, and OPEC countries keep a tight reign on prices.

Campaigning for next year's general election is officially still months away, but political parties have increasingly moved into election mode, with inflation and the cost of living already emerging as key issues.

OPEC consists of Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

The group is estimated to produce about 40 per cent of the world's oil but to hold more than 77 per cent of the world's proved oil reserves. OPEC also claims nearly all of the world's excess oil production capacity.

Although Cambodia is expected to tap into its own potentially lucrative offshore oil reserves by the end of the decade, it currently remains totally dependent on imports, with inflation running at 4.7 per cent in 2006, according to the Ministry of Finance.