Upgrade to be funded by already approved loan from Beijing

CHINESE company Shanghai Co has been selected by the government to develop infrastructure at Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP).

Hei Bavy, director general of PPAP, told the Post Wednesday that the business has been awarded the rights to develop the port from the Cambodian government. It is set to start the project this March and due to finish 30 months later.

The scheme will be funded by a US$30 million Chinese loan, announced by the government in October.

In its first stage, Shanghai will equip the 59-year-old port with modern goods-lifting equipment and build a new port for storing containers in a deep-water area. This will be situated on the Mekong River, in Kien Svay district, 20 kilometres east of Phnom Penh.

“We hope more ... containers will be shipped through Phnom Penh Autonomous Port because of this development project,” said Hei Bavy.

It is hoped that after development the port will be able to load from 120,000 to 300,000 standard containers of goods per year, he added. At present, it is able to load a maximum of 50,000 to 60,000 per year.

In 2009, PPAP shipped only 43,500 standard containers of freight, a drop of 7.44 percent compared with 2008, due to the global economic crisis.

Hei Bavy predicted that the shipment of freight at PPAP this year might reach 60,000 containers, due to a predicted increase in rice exports and some other agricultural products.

“I believe that Cambodia will continue to develop in the future. There will be bigger demand for produce, which means transportation services will need to expand too,” Hei Bavy said.

Last week, Chan Nora, secretary of state of the Ministry of Commerce, predicted that business in Cambodia would improve this year because large amounts of agricultural products like rice, corn and rubber had been reserved for export.