Beijing: China and Cambodia have agreed to build safe and stable supply chains together and strengthen cooperation in transport infrastructure, they said in a joint statement published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday, April 18.
The two countries have also signed an agreement on the construction of a large canal that Cambodia hopes to transform its economic fortune, although the investment and the scale of the project have apparently been cut.
The agreements occurred at the end of the three nations of the Chinese President Xi Jinping in Southeast Asia which included stops in Vietnam and Malaysia.
The trip was part of Beijing's efforts to consolidate economic and commercial ties with nearby neighbors in front of China's pricing assignment with the United States.
“China supports Cambodia in the construction of Funan Techo Integrated Water Conservancy Project in accordance with the principles of feasibility and sustainability,” said the joint declaration.
The channel project, which was previously estimated at a cost of 1.7 billion dollars – almost 4% of the country's gross domestic product – and 180 km, is now estimated at 1.16 billion US dollars with a period of 151.6 km, the Cambodian government announced in a separate declaration on Friday.
It will be funded by a public-private partnership, showed the press release, Cambodian investors with a 51% stake and Chinese investors holding 49%.
