Transport minister Sun Chanthol showing a personalised number plate last week. MPWT
According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the revenue from selling special and personalised number plates as of July has reached over $78 million for more than 210,000 of the plates issued.
The ministry also requested that anyone with a vehicle equipped with the old black and white style of number plates apply for new ones as soon as possible.
Ministry secretary of state Koy Sodany revealed the figures during the ministry's live streamed programme via Facebook July 28.
She said the sales of special plates from 2016 to July of this year had reached 205,023 with total revenues of 217,516,559,400 riel ($54.3 million).
The sales of personalised plates, since their introduction in 2020 to July of this year, had reached 12,926 with total revenues of 95,641,304,700 riel, or nealy $24 million.
Sodany also urged people who were still using the old number plates that are black and white to change to the new number plates, suggesting that they update their vehicle registrations and get new plates at the same time.
"The black and white number plates were in use back in the Sangkum Reastr Niyum time period, so they are very old and are no longer registered. So I would like to take this opportunity to call on people who use black and white number plates to please come and change to the new ones at the ministry’s service centre," she said.
Between 1950 and 1970, Cambodia’s number plates were black and white with a black surface and white numbers representing the capital and provinces with a four or five-digit number written with Arabic numerals, which are the numbers used by the English and French languages, among others, but still referred to as Arabic because that is where they originated
Later, between 1980 and 1989, vehicle number plates changed to having a white surface with black writing in the Khmer alphabet in front along with an acronym representing the province or capital and a five-digit number written with Arabic numerals in back.
From 1990 to 1993, the Arabic numerals remained on the back plate and were changed to four digits. From 1994 to 2003, the plates were similar to previous years but with the addition of Khmer numerals in front with four digit numbers.
According to the ministry, a special plate has “Phnom Penh” or the name of the province issued in Khmer at the top and in Latin below, The number begins with one class digit, dependent on the type of vehicle, followed by one or two Latin letters and then four digits that can be specified.
A personalised plate has the word “Cambodia” at the top, with one to eight letters and numbers on the next line. It can contain virtually any arrangements of letters and numbers, including people’s names if they so desire. On the right side, there is a QR Code which has information about the vehicle. Number plates can be purchased online through vehicle.mpwt.gov.kh.
