GROUND was broken for eight new posts on the border of Kampong Cham province’s Memot district and Tay Ninh province in Vietnam on Friday, officials said, as part of a plan to demarcate the area’s entire border by the end of the year.

Kampong Cham police Chief Noun Samin said Sunday that officials from both countries attended the groundbreaking ceremony at border post No 80, located in Memot district’s Choam Kravien commune. He said the borders had been demarcated “without difficulty” following discussions with the Border Committee of Cambodia and local villagers. Officials have said that Cambodia and Vietnam plan to finish demarcating their 1,270-kilometre shared border by 2012.

Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, reiterated his party’s concerns that the border-demarcation process was resulting in the loss of land to Vietnam.

“The setting up of border posts in the past and recently has caused Cambodia to lose land,” he said.