Finance minister and NCL chairman Aun Pornmoniroth says the PPLC project will streamline the Kingdom’s logistics sector. Heng Chivoan
Minister of Economy and Finance and National Council of Logistics (NCL) chairman Aun Pornmoniroth on Wednesday called for relevant institutions to support the Singapore-based YCH Group Pte Ltd in its feasibility study of a monumental logistics hub in western Phnom Penh.
The institutions must ensure that YCH completes its study on the Phnom Penh Logistics Centre (PPLC) as soon as possible for a prompt launch of the project, which is set to streamline the Kingdom’s logistics sector.
Pornmoniroth said this at the second meeting of the NCL, which was held at the ministry.
The NCL is a specialised inter-ministerial team that is designed to tackle the high costs of the Kingdom’s logistics sector and promote the efficient flow of exports.
He told the institutions to gauge YCH’s needs and determine what the government can do to accelerate work on the project.
He added that YCH’s study would provide the basis for determining the PPLC’s business model.
Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol said a framework agreement between his ministry and YCH for the development of the PPLC has already been drafted.
But having obtained additional input from the NCL meeting, he said the agreement would be amended with careful attention that the scope and content of the revisions are in line with the agreement’s subject matter and is beneficial to the Kingdom.
YCH identifies itself as the Asia-Pacific region’s leading integrated end-to-end supply chain management and logistics partner.
The ministry’s General Department of Logistics director Chhieng Pich told The Post in August that a then-recently-completed early-stage feasibility analysis of the PPLC had provided positive results.
He said the study showed that the project would be economically viable and commercialising it would benefit the private and public sectors.
The PPLC is to be located on 98ha of land in the capital’s Samraong Kraom commune just northwest of the Phnom Penh International Airport.
Its location is strategically significant as it sits between Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and the Poipet rail line on the border with Thailand. It is also located near National Roads 3 and 4, as well as the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone.
Cambodia’s weak logistics infrastructure has long impeded its trade sector, with a 2014 World Bank report showing that the Kingdom’s export costs were 30 per cent higher than those of neighbouring countries.
In 2016, the Japan International Cooperation Agency estimated that Cambodia charges its exporters $540 per twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), compared to $200 in Thailand and $250 in Vietnam.
A TEU is an inexact unit of cargo capacity used in the shipping industry roughly equivalent to a container with internal dimensions measuring about 20 feet long, eight feet wide and 8.5 feet tall, or a volume roughly 38.5 cubic metres.
