From 2022, Cambodia will rollout the expansion of the sea port at Preah Sihanouk province to reduce sea transport cost and attract more foreign direct investments.
The plan was shared recently with the media by Lou Kimchhun, Director General of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, adding that the expansion will entail three main stages.
According to the director general, current sea port at Sihanoukville can attract about 18 to 19 percent of the container ships in the Asia-Pacific region.
The first-phase expansion of the sea port to 350 metres long and 14.5 metres deep that will begin in 2022 and complete in 2025 can allow around 93 percent of all cargo ship types in the region to dock.
The expanded port, he continued, has the capacity to host up to 400 containers and can reduce the transport cost at an average of $200 per container.
While the first phase expansion targets at cargo ships in the Asia-Pacific, the second and third ones until 2030 aim at the ship types from the United States and Europe.
The expansion (first and second phases) is estimated to cost over $400 million, of which more than $200 million is a loan from Japan.
The expansion of the port will significantly reduce the sea transport cost and eventually attract more foreign investments to Cambodia, especially to Preah Sihanouk province which is being transformed into a multi-purpose special economic zone.
