Commonsense has prevailed with authorities apparently conceding that Siem Reap’s Administrative City, opened to great fanfare in January 2011, is a dud.

The new promise is that most government offices banished to the far-flung bureaucratic outpost will be relocated back into town.

On Monday, April 29, it was announced that changes would be made to offices located in the Siem Reap Administrative City due to its distance from Siem Reap’s business district.

Tea Banh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense said, during a ceremony marking the installation of a new Siem Reap governor, that he was thinking about government officials who have to travel almost twenty kilometres in order to work at the Siem Reap Administrative City.

He added that the so-called city would be moved to a site nearer town in the very near future.

“I would like to inform all of you about the Siem Reap Administrative City, the place for officials to work. It is very far away from the city and I am considering a new site now,” he said.

Provincial government officials heralded this announcement with much enthusiasm because working at the Siem Reap Administrative City was fraught with difficulties. The long drive to work played havoc with the family budget, due mostly to the cost of gasoline. They also claimed the long daily commute created health problems and road safety was also a big issue.

A government official, speaking anonymously, hoped that promise of relocation would become reality in the near future.

“We thank him [Deputy Prime Minister] for thinking about us. We have experienced many difficulties since they relocated our work to this place” she said.

She added that on her salary she could not afford the daily gasoline expense.

“We have to spend $10 every day for our gasoline if we drive our cars to work.  I think that is too much to spend on only one thing and I feel very excited to hear this good news.”

She said that hopefully the relocation to the new site will happen soon so that her daily expenses will be decreased.

The Administrative City opened for government officials to work in January 2011.