China agreed last week to help construct a new, eight-story Council of Minister’s complex by financing its estimated $49 million cost, officials said Sunday.
It was not yet clear Sunday whether the $49 million would come in the form of a loan, a grant or a combination of both. Chinese Ambassador Hu Qinwen said he did not know whether the cost of construction would have to be repaid to China.
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and Hu signed the deal late Thursday to erect the new building at its current location on Russian Confederation Boulevard, said Touch Seang Tana, undersecretary of state for the Council of Ministers.
“The work of the Council of Ministers [in the past] was small. But right now we have a lot of work to do, so we must enlarge the Council of Minister’s building,” Touch Seang Tana said.
Construction will take two and a half years to complete and should be finished by 2008, Touch Seang Tana said. But he said that the government must first secure additional land near the site, currently occupied by several houses.
“Whenever the government is ready [with] the land, the Chinese company will start construction,” he said. He did not disclose the name of the company. The government will borrow office space from other ministries for Council of Ministers staff until construction is completed, he said.
Sam Rainsy lawmaker Yim Sovann said he welcomed the assistance from China but pointed to more pressing needs.
“We need a new [Council of Minister’s building], of course,” Yim Sovann said. “But I think in the present situation, an irrigation system is the most important thing.”
Senate Cabinet Chief Um Sarith said that a Chinese delegation, which surveyed several dilapidated Chinese-built Senate buildings in November, will return sometime between January and March to renovate them.
The walls and floor tiles of four Senate buildings constructed by the Chinese government in 2001 were cracked and crumbling, staff reported last year.
