A portion of National Road 5 stretching from Battambang town in Battambang province to Banteay Meanchey province’s Sisophon town. MPWT
A fourth expressway project, planned to connect the capital with Poipet International Gate on the Thai border, has entered the study phase, according to Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol.
The minister was speaking to reporters during an inspection of a construction site for Phnom Penh’s third ring road on February 28.
The Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville is currently Cambodia’s only expressway, opening to traffic on October 1. A Phnom Penh-Bavet thoroughfare with terminus at the Vietnamese border is set to break ground in mid-2023, while an initial study is reportedly nearly 100 per cent complete for a Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route.
Chanthol confirmed that his ministry has authorised an unnamed “large company” to conduct a study on a potential Phnom Penh-Poipet Expressway, as requested by the firm, which proposed a build-operate-transfer (BOT) scheme.
The BOT model is a form of project financing where the public sector grants concessions to a private entity to build and operate projects for a specified period a time, after which ownership is typically transferred back to the government.
Although the existing National Road 5 – also from the capital to the border in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town – is being upgraded from a two- to a four-lane road, travel times will remain relatively long, and animals are not significantly prevented from crossing at every point, the minister conceded in an apparent justification for the expressway.
He claimed that expressways have and will greatly stimulate growth in the Cambodian economy, and underscored their value as links between “economic poles” – or geographical areas of concentrated economic activity.
Five areas that have been formally defined or proposed as “economic poles” are Phnom Penh, Preah Sihanouk and Siem Reap provinces, and the northeastern and northwestern regions.
Logistics and Supply Chain Business Association in Cambodia president Chea Chandara told The Post on March 1 that freight transportation between Phnom Penh and Poipet currently takes about seven or eight hours, or even longer than 10 hours for larger vehicles.
“A Phnom Penh-Poipet Expressway would increase traffic between Cambodia and Thailand to another level … [and] be a force to attract more tourists from nearby countries,” he said, adding that cutting down travel times between the two places would bring great benefits for the people and national economy as a whole.
More roads, bridges, ports and airports, and other transport infrastructure are crucial to drive economic growth, he stressed, reckoning that high-functioning and extensive transportation systems better entice investors and tourists to take a trip to the Kingdom.
Cambodia Logistics Association president Sin Chanthy lauded plans for the fourth expressway, commenting that the high-speed road would knock down travel times, and make life easier for Cambodian farmers looking to move their crops into Thailand.
“Infrastructure is very essential for economic growth – the more transportation options there are, the greater the [Kingdom’s] competitiveness,” he said.
Customs (GDCE) statistics indicate that Cambodia’s international merchandise trade volume totalled $52.425 billion last year, rising by 9.19 per cent over 2021.
Of that, the Kingdom’s imports and exports were to the tune of $29.942 billion and $22.483 billion, increasing by 4.32 per cent and 16.44 per cent year-on-year, respectively, narrowing the trade deficit by 20.60 per cent on a yearly basis to $7.459 billion.
