Minister of Public Works and Transport Sun Chanthol has met with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to discuss a draft road transport policy.
The discussions – on the development of infrastructure to support the use of electric vehicles (EVs) – were held on February 2 in a courtesy meeting with a UNDP delegation.
During the meeting, Chanthol said the ministry was considering ways it could support the use of EVs to reduce the negative impact of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Chanthol said the draft law was part of a joint project between the ministry and the UNDP to install charging stations.
“This project will include assisting the General Department of Customs and Excise to prepare a plan to reduce the import of vehicles more than 10 years old, and meeting with several petrol station companies to discuss the installation of charging stations, including Total, Caltex, Sokimex and Tela,” he said.
In addition, he instructed the ministry’s General Department of Land Transport to prepare a comprehensive roadmap related to the development of the infrastructure.
He planned to discuss the feasibility of using electric motorcycles instead of gasoline motorcycles with food transport services such as Food Panda and NHAM24, as another means of improving sustainable road transport.
UNDP representative Alissar Chaker said the global trend was towards the use of EVs to ensure sustainable development and reduce climate change.
She suggested that the ministry work closely with development partners as well as the private sector to develop infrastructure to support EVs and encouraged the participation of relevant ministries and institutions on this project.
In the past, Chanthol discussed a cooperative project between the ministry and the UNDP to install five charging stations at the ministry and in the capital and provinces.
For this project, the ministry also planned to install charging stations on the Phnom Penh-Preah Sihanouk province expressway – scheduled to be commissioned in September – in collaboration with a local petrol station company. Meanwhile, the installation of charging stations at 10 locations in the Phnom Penh municipality would be done in cooperation with the private sector.
According to a recent study by experts at a university in Norway and a study by experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, EVs emit less carbon dioxide than conventional cars. Some EVs can help to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 50 per cent, while others achieve up to 80 per cent, depending on the model and technology used.