Cambodia starts to build container terminal with Chinese support

People's Daily Online
March 09, 2011

Cambodia broke ground for the construction of the Kingdom's second largest new container terminal of Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (pictured) on Wednesday in order to meet the growing demands of shipments.

The ground-breaking ceremony was presided over by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Pan Guangxue. It was also attended by 2,000 participants, including top government officials, diplomats, locals and students.

According to the master plan, the 10-hectare terminal is being constructed by the China-based Shanghai Construction (Group) General Company with a soft loan of 28.2 million U.S. dollars provided by the Chinese side. It will take 30 months to be completed.

The terminal will have a total capacity of 120,000 TEUs (20- foot equivalent unit) per year and it will consist of a wharf platform enabling two 5,000 tones of container berths.

The terminal is located along the Mekong River in Kean Svay district, about 30 kilometers east of Phnom Penh.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hun Sen said that the new terminal is a new achievement of numerous ones under bilateral cooperation between Cambodia and China and expressed thanks to China for its constantly financial supports to Cambodia.

"I strongly believe the new container dock will increase the loading/unloading capacity of the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port," he said, adding that "The new dock will become a main hub for distributing goods across the country that can push the internal integration, international trade and regional trade a step further, especially to realize our rice export target of 1 million metric tons per annum."

The terminal will not only connect Phnom Penh Autonomous Port to Vietnam's Cai Map port, but also help to ship goods directly to Singapore, Malaysia, and China's Hong Kong and Shanghai, as well as other neighboring countries and regions without ship transfer, the prime minister said.

"In the coming years, Cambodia will have more goods for export, besides garment exports, we will have agricultural products and we have already opened market with China on rice, cassava and other products, so it will facilitate Cambodia's exports to China and other countries," said Hun Sen.

The new terminal will add more capacity to its existing Phnom Penh Autonomous Port of only 80,000 TEUs, said Hun Sen.

Pan Guangxue said that the construction of the terminal is a new symbol of closer cooperation between the two countries.

"China sees that the construction of the new container terminal is vital to keeping up with the increasing demands of Cambodia's imports and exports," he said.

"It will be essential to boost more activities of enterprises, the manufacturing industry and agricultural sector."

He reiterated that China is committed to helping Cambodia in all sectors including waterway transportation, roads, bridges, irrigation system, and electricity so as to boost the development of Cambodian economy.