The State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) has swapped its headquarters on Norodom Boulevard and will move to a location adjacent to Phnom Penh International Airport by next year, civil aviation officials confirmed Tuesday.
Sinn Chanserey Vutha, deputy director-general of the SSCA, said construction on the new $3 million headquarters began in late 2013 and is expected to be completed next year.
“We will move from the old location to the new location at the end of 2015,” he said. “I think that it is good to change because the old location is very small and it is not enough space for our more than 500 civil aviation staff.”
Mr. Chanserey Vutha said the move was part of a land swap, but declined to elaborate. He said he did not know which company had been contracted to build the new headquarters and take charge of the secretariat’s current building in the city center.
“I don’t know who will get the old location of the civil aviation because this is a swap by the government,” he said.
However, according to plans posted outside the site of the new building, it is being constructed by SOMA Group, a company headed by Sok Puthyvuth, the son of Cabinet Minister Sok An.
Mr. Puthyvuth confirmed Tuesday that his company had been awarded the contract to build the new headquarters, but denied that SOMA Group would take control of the secretariat’s prime real estate on Norodom Boulevard.
“No. We did not do that. We are only doing the construction [for the new building],” he said.
The new building sits on 17,800 square meters of land adjacent to Phnom Penh International Airport, around 13 km from the city center, according to papers that detail the project. The building itself, when complete, will be 2,323 square meters and three stories high.
