HUN SEN has given the green light to China's United International to begin building an ecotourism project worth more than US$700 million on the coast in Ream, Preah Sihanouk province, after a meeting Tuesday with company officials at the prime minister's home in Takhmao, government officials said.

Following the meeting, Hun Sen's spokesman Eang Sophalleth said the company - which is known in Cambodia as Yeejia Tourism Development Co Ltd - "plans to start ... construction later this year, in November".

The 5-million-square-metre project would be built in four phases, he added, over four years each. Infrastructure including roads, electricity lines and water access would be built from scratch, said Eang Sophalleth, along with facilities including a business centre, school and hospital.

Youn Heng, deputy director of the Evaluation and Incentives Department at the Cambodian Investment Board (CIB), told the Post Tuesday that Yeejia Tourism Development Co had been seeking government approval for the project since 2005 and had finally been accepted this year.