Construction on a new multi-purpose terminal at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port is expected to begin in early 2014 to support Cambodia’s rising exports, port officials said yesterday.

The new terminal, linking sea to shore, will occupy three hectares and is expected to be finished by late 2016. It will cost close to $80 million and will be funded with a loan from the Japanese government, according to port authorities.

Var Sonath, deputy director of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, said that the port is needed to support Cambodia’s growing agricultural and garment exports.

“As Cambodia’s economy keeps growing, we see an increasing number of agricultural products being exported,” Sonath said.

“The new terminal will be built to keep up with the growth.”

The terminal was originally slated for completion in 2014, according to Sonath, but was delayed as designs were changed to include more space for warehousing.

With the government targeting the export of one million tonnes of rice in 2015, the president of the Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters, Kim Savuth, said he welcomed the new construction.

He added, however, that improvements were still needed for the logistics of getting cargo to the terminal.

“What [also] matters is the fee I have to pay when the rice arrives at the port, like the fee for transporting the containers to the scanning machine after they are unloaded from the train,” he said.