Sihanoukville (FN), Nov. 7 – Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet congratulated and was delighted with the beginning of the construction of the first phase of the Sihanoukville deep-water port.
This deep-water port is a large port, providing transportation convenience and reducing shipping costs in the future.
The premier spoke on Tuesday (Nov. 7) during his meeting with more than 15,000 workers in Prey Nob district, Preah Sihanouk province.
Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet stated that Sihanoukville, along with other coastal provinces, has the potential to develop deep-water ports and is also an important port of Cambodia; therefore, the Cambodian Government will strive for more development on the port of Sihanoukville.
Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet underscored that the port of Sihanoukville has container traffic as it is planned to have only 550,000 TEUs per year, but it has increased to more than 750,000 TEUs in recent years. To support the increase, the government decided to expand the port.
"We have worked with Japan to invest in the expansion of our deep-water port in the first phase, which will begin construction before the end of 2023”, Samdech Thipadei underlined.
Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet added that deputy prime minister Sun Chanthol met with the president of JICA to push for negotiations for the budget of the first phase of the expansion as 2023 marks Cambodia-Japan 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
On the occasion, Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet added that Cambodia and Japan will work together to expand the deep-water port in Sihanoukville. While the current port of Sihanoukville can only accommodate 9.50 meters of cargo containers, the port receives only approximately 18 per cent of the cargo.
At the same time, Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet also announced his ambition to turn Sihanoukville port into a transfer point. If the first phase of the deep-water port expansion is successful, it will be able to handle about 93 per cent of cargo containers, which will reduce the cost of shipping from between USD 400 or USD 500 to only USD 200 per container.
In addition, Samdech Thipadei emphasized that if Cambodia can expand the deep-water port in the second or third phase in the future, the port will be able to receive more containers, contributing to creating jobs and boosting economic growth.
Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet stated that the expansion of the deep-water port in Sihanoukville must always move forward as it is the policy of the Royal Government of Cambodia under the leadership of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP).
Please be noted that this deep-water port development project will provide easy transportation and reduce transportation costs in the future.
Sihanoukville Autonomous Port Terminal in the first phase, with 350 meters length and 14.5 meters depth with a loan of more than USD 200 million from Japan, began construction in 2022 and will be completed in early 2025.
=FRESH NEWS
