SOKIMEX Group is constructing a new 600-room five-star-quality hotel, which is set to grace the seafront of Sihanoukville by 2012, a company official said Thursday.

The nine-storey complex is being built on 54 hectares of land on O’Chhuteal beach, Sihanoukville.

“We have already done 95 percent of the concrete pounding, and we will complete the building work over the next three years,” said Svay Vuthy, general manager of Sokha Hotel in Sihanoukville, which is owned by President and CEO of Sokimex Group Sok Kong,

The development project, to be called Sokha O’Chhuteal Hotel, will include bungalows and a golf course.

Svay Vuthy declined to disclose the amount of capital invested in the project.

“Now is a good time to build a hotel because Cambodia has a lot of potential for tourism. The number of tourists coming to our country increases every year,” he said.

Sokimex currently operates three Sokha hotels in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. Three more are under construction, including one in Phnom Penh and another on Bokor in Kampot Province.

News of the hotel build follows reports, published in Cambodian press Thursday, that Cambodia Angkor Air (CAA) is to offer domestic charter flights to Sihanouk International Airport this year.

The Post met with blank responses when it contacted officials to verify the claims Thursday.

Mai Xuan Long, deputy director of CAA, said that he didn’t know exactly what was happening with the company’s flights to Sihanoukville International Airport.

Kao Sivorn, Operation Director Department of Secretariat of State of Civil Aviation, said that so far he has not received proposals from CAA to start operations to the new airport.

He added that the company does not have enough ability to begin regular flights to Sihanouk International Airport yet.

He added: “If [CAA] begin operation there, it will boost the tourism sector for Sihanouk province, as the airport can link it to Siem Reap International Airport.”

Tith Chantha, director of Sihanouk International Airport, said that he has not yet heard when CAA would begin flights to the airport.

“I have not received any official letter from CAA,” he said.