An Indonesian construction firm is set to begin building a 260-hectare satellite city in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district this year in a joint venture with a Cambodian company, officials said.
The chairman of Indonesia’s YLP Ciputra Group, which will build the city in collaboration with Grand Phnom Penh International City, met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday, Hun Sen’s assistant Eang Sophaleth said Friday.
“Samdech [Hun Sen] supports the city project and asked the firm to work with the Phnom Penh Municipality,” Eang Sophaleth said.
“I believe this project…will succeed because [Ciputra Group] has experience of building cities in Hanoi, Indonesia, India and Singapore,” Eang Sophaleth said, adding that the project will begin soon.
A senior official with YLP Ciputra Group said Friday that the satellite city will be worth about $500 million, and will feature houses, a hospital, university, golf course, business center and shopping mall.
The project will be located in Kmuonh commune, the official added on condition of anonymity.
Work has already begun on water and electricity installation at the site, and construction of buildings will begin later in the year, the senior company official said.
“We have completed the master plan—now we will begin the project,” he said. “I believe 100 percent that everything will succeed in accordance with the plan,” he added.
The Council for the Development of Cambodia gave approval for Grand Phnom Penh International City in 2005, said Youn Heng, deputy director of the evaluation and incentive department at CDC’s Cambodian Investment Board.
The CDC authorized the project hoping that YLP Ciputra will replicate in Phnom Penh successes previously achieved in Vietnam, he said. The Ciputra Group is developing the Hanoi suburb of West Lake, launched in 2001 and due for completion in 2010.
“If we look at YLP Ciputra, it has a strong will to make it happen,” he said.
