By May Kunmakara
Monday, 07 May 2012
Phnom Penh Post
A worker climbs on steel
reinforcement bars at the construction site of a new bridge in Phnom
Penh last year. A major Chinese bank last week announced plans to invest
in both a Cambodia-based steel refinery and a domestic television
station. Photograph: Phnom Penh Post/Heng Chivoan
The Export-Import Bank of China
(Exim Bank) planned to invest US$235 million in two Cambodian mega
projects, one of which was the modernisation of a TV station that one
analyst said might not be necessary given the country’s level of
development.
During a meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen on
Friday, Exim Bank Vice President Zhu Xinqiang said the bank would look
to invest in a steel refinery and a digital TV project, according to Hun
Sen’s adviser Eang Sophallet.
“The first project, a digital TV
station investment, the company will come to invest with a local,
private-owned TV station to modernise the TV system [in Cambodia]
digitally, with a phone and internet system,” Eang Sophallet said. “The
second project is a steel refinery plant that will import raw material
from abroad. [It would] supply Cambodia as well as the region.”
Hun
Sen answered Zhu Xinqiang’s call for support on the projects, saying
they were much needed in the country, according to Eang Sophallet.
A timeframe for the investments was not disclosed.
As
Cambodia takes on more investment from China, analysts have noted the
risks of reliance, especially in the media sector, on investment from
surrounding countries.
“Any association coming from these
authoritarian regimes is suspicious,” Lao Mong Hay, an independent
political analyst, said of investment from China and Vietnam. “They
could have an influence on our people.”
Lao Mong Hay stressed the
importance of local investment in the media sector, and questioned
Cambodia’s need for digital TV programming given the country’s current
state of development.
In early February, the Cambodian government
signed a loan package of $302 million with Exim Bank for road and
irrigation projects, in addition to a $198.2 million loan received in
August 2010.
To contact the reporter on this story: May Kunmakara at kunmakara.may@phnompenhpost.com
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