Three Sokha Hotels now under construction in the Kingdom were financed by a loan from Vietnam-owned BIDC bank, Sohka Hotel Company Chief Executive Officer Sok Vanna said yesterday.

The firm has received the capital, and is using it to finance Sokha’s Bokor resort in Kampot province, as well as the Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel on the Chruoy Changvar peninsula and a beachside hotel in Preah Sihanouk province, he said.

“We had already received the agreed-upon loan, and begun implementing our projects, but we waited to sign the official agreement during the visit of the Vietnamese Prime Minister to the Kingdom,” he said.

The loan agreement was signed by BIDC CEO Nguyen Van Hien and Sok Vanna on Sunday, during a visit by Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Phnom Penh. Sok Vanna declined to reveal the size of the loan yesterday.

The three projects are at different stages of development. Five stories of the 16-storey, 799-room Sokha Hotel Phnom Penh are built, and is set for a 2014 completion, he said.

Work on the 700-room, 18-storey Sokha Bokor Hotel located on Bokor Mountain next to a historic casino is continuing, though no completion date has been set.

The 9-storey, 600-room Sokha O’Chheuteal Hotel is expected to be completed in 2012 in Sihanoukville.

“Cambodia has lots of areas that will attract international tourists to come,” he said.

The firm currently operates three Sokha hotels in Cambodia.

Ministry of Tourism Industry Department Director Prak Chan Dara said yesterday that the Kingdom has seen many hotels being built in recent years.

“We will have a lot of five star hotels in our country and we think that it is a good sign for the tourism sector,” he said.