The Cambodia Securities Exchange- (CSX) listed Phnom Penh SEZ Plc (PPSP) on December 21 broke ground on a new rental warehouse which is expected to be operational in July next year, according to a senior official of the industrial zone operator.

PPSP CEO Hiroshi Uematsu told The Post on December 22 that the new rental warehouse will be used to store production materials and was constructed with total floor area of 5,850sqm on a 12,325sqm plot inside Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (PPSEZ).

Construction is slated to be completed in seven months, he said.

PPSP has been pulling all the stops to accommodate existing investors in the face of Covid-19, he said. “In the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s hard to accommodate new investors, but we do provide full support for existing factories to expand their production.”

Since its establishment in 2006, PPSP has been developing and expanding non-stop. Its main business is to develop and operate PPSEZ, which has welcomed numerous tenants operating in diverse fields such as construction, security, tax consultation and support, property development and management.

One of many subsidiaries of PPSP, Sahas Properties Co Ltd was established in PPSEZ in November 2018 to take charge of property development and management inside the industrial zone.

As of December 21, PPSEZ accommodates more than 30 investors from Japan, China and other countries to its rental factory buildings.

Painting tools manufacturer Maru-T Ohtsuka (Phnom Penh) Corp, automobile wire harness maker Sumi (Cambodia) Wiring Systems Co Ltd, industrial packaging materials producer Taiyo Kogyo (Cambodia) Co Ltd are examples of the industrial park’s tenants.

More rental factory and warehouse buildings are to be built and managed by Sahas Properties to meet the continuous demand of investors from Japan and other countries.

As a result, Uematsu said, total employees increased from 21,000 in January to 26,000 last month while the total export value hit $547 million in the first 11 months of this year, increasing 13.7 per cent from the $481 million chalked up in the same period of last year.

He said: “I think that factories in PPSEZ are providing considerable contributions to Cambodia’s economy in these of toughest times.”

In the third quarter of this year, the PPSP reported total revenue of 10,228,877,000 riel ($2.5 million), up 19.53 per cent year-on-year, and net income to the tune of 1,088,761,000 riel, up 134.86 per cent year-on-year, according to a financial report filed to the CSX.