If Cambodia gains entry to the World Trade Organization in September, badly needed road improvements would be crucial to supporting the influx of business that many hope WTO-member status will bring. And so Sin Khandy, Cabinet chief for the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, has lamented Cambodia’s slow pace of development on this issue.
“The world was discussing road access 50 years ago. Now they aren’t talking about road access anymore. Only [least-developed countries] are working on this issue. Now the world is focused on Microsoft and Internet access,” he said on Monday.
Approximately half of a countrywide 6,000-km road-renovation project has been completed, and the rest should be finished by 2005, Sin Khandy said. The completion should bring huge trade and investment potential to Cambodia, he said.
Sin Khandy compared a soaring Cambodian economy to a kite whose flight will depend on roads connecting provincial markets to borders, airports and shipping ports. The country’s economy still depends heavily on foreign imports and garment exports to the US and Europe.
Sin Khandy estimated that $400 million has already been spent on road renovation, and the government is currently seeking another $400 million to achieve its final goal. The efforts so far mainly have been funded by grants from the Japanese government and loans from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. The official said money from the national budget has also gone toward some projects.
Meanwhile, work continues.
Members of the transport sector recently met with their Vietnamese counterparts to coordinate road links in hopes of bolstering trade and developing remote border provinces.
A $24 million project for a 70-km stretch of National Route 78, which runs from Banlung in Rattanakiri province to O’Ya-daw district on the Vietnam border, is currently being studied by Vietnamese officials. Prime Minister Hun Sen said recently that if the project goes ahead, Vietnam would pay for half of it and loan Cambodia the rest of the expense.
Hun Sen also said Sunday that the government is considering reconstructing roads that go from the Lao border to the southern border with Vietnam and run through Stung Treng, Kratie, Mondolkiri, Kompong Cham and Kandal provinces and Phnom Penh.
The most important transportation artery will be a link in the developing trans-Asean highway—National Route 5 from the Poipet border checkpoint in Banteay Meanchey province to Phnom Penh, where it will link with National Route 1 to the Bavet border checkpoint in Svay Rieng province.
Vietnam’s Transport minister, Dao Dinh Binh, has urged the hurried completion of these roads’ renovations in 2003, as Vietnam will officially open its stretch of the trans-Asean highway in April.
“Not longer than this year. I promise,” Sin Khandy said in response.
Chhin Kong Hean, director general at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, said that he wants to see 80 percent to 90 percent of National Route 1 completed by July, as the rainy season could severely hinder work.
National Route 5 is being repaired by the Thai-owned Nawarat company, Vietnamese-owned Cienco 5 company and Malaysian-owned Muhibbah Engineering (Cambodia) Co, Ltd. National Route 1 is being repaired by the Thai-owned Nopawong Co.
Chhin Kong Hean said that the closing of the Thai border after the Jan 29 riots in Phnom Penh was a major hindrance to road work. Materials were then unavailable, but construction and repairs have since moved forward.
The highway eventually will connect Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
Another important stretch of road—about 130 km from Takhmau in Kandal province to Phnom Den on the Vietnamese border in Takeo province—also is scheduled for repair.
Funding has already been secured—$2 million from the ADB and $11 million from Japan—and construction is slated to begin in April or May. The contract has not yet been awarded but companies from Thailand, Vietnam and Japan will be bidding, Sin Khandy said.
Sin Khandy said that if the national elections scheduled for July go smoothly, he would expect the country’s road work to do the same.
The Bangkok Post reported Tuesday that Thai soldiers have completed work on the 153-km road that runs from Koh Kong town to Sre Ambel district.
Thai Lieutenant General Thanadet Pathumrat was scheduled to officially hand the road over to Cambodian co-Defense Minister General Tea Banh in a ceremony Tuesday. The road project took two years.
