Svay Rieng to build recycling plant

Svay Rieng provincial authorities plan to build a factory that recycles plastic waste to make furniture in collaboration with a Japanese company and support from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, according to officials.

Toch Poliva, the deputy provincial governor in charge of the project, yesterday said if all went according to plan, the factory will be ready by April.

“We may likely start building the factory in Svay Rieng city at the end of this year so that we can start operations in April,” he said. “The factory will not be large and will be used to house equipment imported from Japan by the Gomi Recycle 110 company.”

Mr Poliva said that the project has reached the stage where the Japanese side is putting the proposal to the Japanese government for approval.

“We are also requesting for trucks from the company to make sure the waste collection is up to international standards because we currently lack such vehicles,” he said. “The price tag for the project has yet to be fixed as it has yet to be approved by the Japanese government.”

Mr Poliva estimated that the amount of plastic waste in Svay Rieng city is about nine tonnes daily, noting that the factory will be built near a rubbish dumpsite in Svay Rieng commune.

JICA officials were not available for comment on the project yesterday. One official confirmed the ongoing cooperation, but was not aware of the details.

Yusuke Okumura, director of Gomi Recycle 110, was quoted in a provincial administration report on Thursday as saying that the company is prepared to import the waste collection trucks and build the factory.

He also conveyed his appreciation to the provincial administration for its cooperation in realising the project.

Provincial Governor Men Vibol said in the report that in addition to converting plastic waste into furniture, the project will also help clean up the city to make it more attractive.

Two new provinces approved

A letter obtained by Khmer Times on August 31 tells of the Prime Minister approving the creation of two new provinces. One is to carve out of Kandal province and the other will be made from a portion of Mondulkiri’s Koh Nhek district and Rattanakiri’s Lumphat district.

This will increase the number of provinces in the Kingdom to 26.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng had requested said a government measure to improve the effectiveness of administration, security, public order, local development, and public services.

He will assign technical officers to cooperate with relevant partners to conduct a study on the proposed areas and confer with Hun Sen thereafter.

Mr Keng says he wants the preliminaries to be completed by January 2019 “… in order to ensure a [sufficient] period of time for the government to adjust the number of seats in capital, city, provincial, municipal, district, and khan councils for the upcoming election of the third mandate in May 2019.

Entertainment complex to open in November

WorldBridge Arena, a shopping and entertainment complex built by the WorldBridge Group in Phnom Penh, will open to the public in November, with half of the retail space on offer already booked.

Simon Griffiths, managing director of Urban Asset Solutions, a company that has provided consulting and management services to WA Arena, said the complex was built with a $10 million investment, and consists of 13 main buildings.

It will have a market with a wide selection of products, from fashion and gadgets to handicrafts and beauty products.

“WB Arena brings together the most popular global brands as well as the most popular home-grown restaurants and cafés.

“Customers can choose from a wide selection of cuisines from Chinese, Khmer, Western, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai all the way to ice-cream parlours, coffee shops and bakery cafes,” Mr Griffiths said.

“We also have an additional entertainment concert, live show theatre, spa and massage,” he added.

Mr Griffiths said that more than 50 percent of the commercial space available at the complex has already been booked.

Chhay Sivlin, president of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agents, welcomed the new development. She said the new entertainment complex shows the potential of the private sector to create innovative commercial spaces to meet local and international demand.

“This is a new destination for tourists in the Kingdom. I hope it will help boost the number of tourists to the capital,” Mrs Sivlin said.

Jiranun Wongmongkol, chairman of RCG Retail (Cambodia), the company that brought Inthanin Coffee to Cambodia, told Khmer Times that an Inthanin café will open in the complex in December this year.

“We hope that the new outlet will be a success. There is not many cafes in this side of town, and is not far from the centre of Phnom Penh and Takhmao city,” she said.

WA Arena extends over 1.3 hectares of land and is located between the Tonle Bassac River and national road 2 in Chak Angre Krom.

First highway to break ground in November

Construction of the Kingdom’s first-ever highway, stretching 190 kilometres to connect Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, was confirmed to start in November.

The highway will begin in Phnom Penh’s Chaom Chao area, starting at street Tom Nop Kop Srov, which links national roads 4 and 5, according to Va Simsorya, spokesman at the Ministry of Public Works.

“Minister Sun Chanthol has already confirmed that construction of the expressway will begin in November as planned,” Mr Simsorya said on Friday.

“The site is now being prepared for the upcoming construction work.”

China Road and Bridge Corporation, who has been granted the project, has also said they are ready to begin work, Mr Simsorya said.

The highway will be built on a build-operate-transfer basis, with the Chinese firm reaching a deal with the Cambodian government in January.

The government is now working on a compensation plan for people affected by the project, Mr Simsorya added.

The thoroughfare will come at a cost of nearly $2 billion, and it will stretch over 190 kilometres – shorter than the current road, which runs for 240 kilometres. It will have four lanes for the majority of its run and will take four years to complete.

New airport car park opens tomorrow

Starting tomorrow, all vehicles accessing Phnom Penh International Airport will be welcomed by a new hi-tech parking lot, which has been designed to ease traffic congestion, according to an airport representative.

Chloé Lapeyre, the airport’s general manager, said in a press conference yesterday that over $1 million was invested to install advance parking equipment and widen the lanes.

“The redesigned car park will have new access points and exits and will be partially accessible to the public after a soft launch this Thursday,” she said, adding that the car park will be fully operational in two to three weeks’ time.

“The deployment of the automatic payment machines and the widening of the passenger lanes will ease traffic congestion at the airport where an average of 3,000 vehicles transit daily,” she said.

Ms Lapeyre said there are currently eight automatic payment machines in the airport. The parking fee is fixed at $0.50 per entrance for motorcycles and at $1.25 and $1.50 per hour for cars and vans, respectively.

She said the new design and hi-tech systems will change parking at the airport, reducing traffic and freeing up car park attendants so that they can focus on helping passengers.

Ms Lapeyre said some lanes have been reserved for holders of Svay Cards, which are new prepaid parking cards for frequent users.

The new Svay Card will provide several benefits, she said, including a 10 percent top-up bonus and privileged access to express lanes, which will allow drivers to drop off passengers near the entrances to departure check-in halls.

Svay Cards will allow drivers to enter and exit the car park and express lanes with a simple scan of their card at entry and exit gates. The scanners debit the parking fee upon exit, she added.

Chinese company to build ‘biggest commercial centre in Cambodia’

Yunnan Shengmao Investment (Cambodia) Co., Ltd yesterday started the construction of a $1-billion commercial complex in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Salang village.

The land, located in Russey Keo district, was leased by Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP).

Chen Tai An, director of Yunnan Shengmao Investment, said the project, known as Triumph Commercial Centre, is in line with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He said the project will bring the two countries closer.

“We are constructing an international commercial and tourism center. There are about 10,000 companies with 100,000 types of goods that will occupy the complex,” Mr Chen said, adding that it will be “the biggest commercial centre in Cambodia connecting to the rest of the world through BIR.”

He said the first phase of the project will be completed by the end of next year, with the whole development finished a year later.

The project received approval from the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) in April. CDC said Triumph Commercial Centre will help create more than 1,000 jobs.

Hei Bavy, PPAP’s director general, said the port authority decided to lease the site because the land was idle.

“Previously this area was used for the storage of containers, but since 2013, this site was not really used because PPAP transferred all its container operations to the terminal in Kien Svay, in Kandal province.

“It took two years to study the project before starting construction. It will provide many benefits for local businesspeople, as well as the general public through employment creation,” Mr Bavy said.

Last month, PPAP leased nine hectares of land along the Tonle Sap River for 50 years to Chean Chhoeng Thai Group, a subsidiary of Yuetai Group, a major Chinese real estate developer.

PPAP was paid $16.5 million for the deal, which will see the development of the area that stretches from Chroy Changvar Bridge – also known as the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge – to the Night Market into a commercial complex.

New government to be formed next month, Hun Sen says

Prime Minister Hun Sen said that a new government is scheduled to be formed next month after the CPP won a sweeping victory in Sunday’s election.

Speaking to about 10,000 garment workers in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, Mr Hun Sen said the Cambodian People’s Party will form a new government on September 20.

“We will form a new government on September 20 and a new Council of Ministers’ meeting will be held on September 21,” he said.

“The first opening session of the National Assembly will take place on September 19 and lawmakers will take oaths in the evening,” he said.

Mr Hun Sen said that King Norodom Sihamoni will preside over the National Assembly’s first opening session.

According to National Election Committee’s preliminary results, the CPP garnered roughly 4.8 million votes, dwarfing the two parties including the two closest competitors–Funcinpec party with 373,526 votes and the League for Democratic Party with 308,292 votes.

Based on its own calculations, the CPP said it secured all 125 parliamentary seats after garnering 77.36 percent of all valid ballots.

Funding for Ring Road 3 inked

The Chinese government has provided $259 million as a concessional loan to Cambodia for the construction of the third ring road for the Phnom Penh.

The Finance Ministry stated that they signed the necessary agreement with China last week.

The new ring road will be four-lane, 47.6 kilometres long, 25 metres wide, and built by the Shanghai Construction Group. The project is an achievement of the Comprehensive Strategy Partnership of both countries.

The ministry said that it will connect with National Roads 1, 2, 3, 5, 21 and Phnom Penh Port. It will play an important role in reducing traffic congestion and be a boon for industrial growth.

The Ring Road 2 is presently under construction.

A new carrier takes off in capital

Cambodia Airways, the latest passenger airline to enter the Kingdom, launched its first domestic flight on Tuesday.

Flight KR801, carrying 145 passengers, left the Phnom Penh International Airport at 9:50am and landed in Siem Reap at 10:35am in an Airbus A319.

Cambodia Airways marketing and branding manager Sok Ravy said domestic routes connecting Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville will operate daily, while the Siem Reap-Macau, Phnom Penh-Macau and Sihanoukville-Macau routes will operate four times a week.

The first international flight is scheduled for takeoff on July 21.

Ravy said the company plans to add a Siem Reap-Taiwan route at the end of the month.

Acknowledging that there has been a spike in competition in the airline sector, she said there was still plenty of room to grow in the Kingdom, as the tourism industry was also booming.

“We believe the tourism industry will keep steady growth, which will drive demand for good quality airline services. We have quality aircraft, professional captains, well-trained cabin crews and standard services.”

“So we believe our company will operate successfully,” Ravy said.

A fleet of two

Cambodia Airways, which is fully owned by the Prince International Airlines Company, is registered in Phnom Penh and received initial approval to operate in August last year. It secured an air operator’s certificate (AOC) on July 6.

With an initial investment of $200 million, the new airline currently operates two Airbus A319 aircraft, with another three A320 aircraft to be commissioned at the end of the year.

Ravy said the company will grow its fleet to 20 aircraft by 2020. The airline expects to operate scheduled flights to Japan, South Korea, Asean countries, as well as routes to Europe and elsewhere in Asia.

The new airline will tighten competition in Cambodia’s increasingly crowded airspace, where 44 commercial airlines operate scheduled flights.

With Cambodian Airways now operating, it puts more pressure on local carriers as the number of domestically registered airlines stand at six.

Cambodia Airports general manager Chloe Lapeyre said the Kingdom is a very attractive market for the sector at the moment because it still hasn’t realised its full tourism potential. Cambodia Airports operates all the airports in the Kingdom.

Lapeyre said the capital’s airport can accommodate between 70 and 90 flights daily – an increase of about 30 percent per year.

“A lot of new international routes have been opening since the beginning of the year. The trend is for faster growth on the international side. That said, there is still space for domestic development too,” she said.