Norimasa Nishida (R), director of Toyoko Inn, speaking yesterday in Phnom Penh during the opening of a new hotel in the capital. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh Post

 

Popular Japanese hotel chain Toyoko Inn has embarked on a joint-investment with Cambodian company OCIC to build a three-star hotel on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich, to cater to the growth of foreign investors and visitors to Cambodia.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the 22-storey, 304 unit Toyoko Inn Phnom Penh took place yesterday.

Construction of the hotel will cost $500 million.

Pung Khiev Se, president of OCIC, said that Japan is well known in Cambodia and has invested in many business ventures. Japan withdrew their investments after 1975, but there is renewed interest in investing in Cambodia after the Kingdom has increased its political stability, economic climate and welfare.

“We can attract more Japanese people to run their business here to shape Cambodia’s economic environment and move it toward being a developed country in the future,” said Pung Khiev Se.

The hotel sits on 1,223 square metres of land, with construction scheduled to finish in November 2014, according to the company’s press release.

Norimasa Nishida, president of Toyoko Inn, said this is the company’s first venture in Cambodia.

“I am running 240 hotels in Japan and also countries such as Korea and China. But this is the first time that I have run a business in Cambodia,” he said.

“We are interested in South East Asia and our company is interested in Cambodia... because South East Asia is close to China. [This is] a response to the increasing number of foreign investors who come into Cambodia,” he said.

“I hope that most of my clients come from East Asia. They will spend their money in Cambodia. We will continue to construct more hotels in Siem Reap province if it runs well.”

Im Chhun Lim, minister for the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said the hotel adds to Phnom Penh’s landscape in order to meet the demand in the growth of foreign visitors and investors in Cambodia.

“Cambodia’s experts and related staff have an opportunity to learn more, gain new experience and knowledge with techniques and management in hotels from the Japanese,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Seun Son at [email protected]