“Get Sihanoukville again”
According to the provincial administration of Preah Sihanouk, the region has a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of US $ 4,000 – approximately double the Cambodian average – largely by a manufacturing center for Chinese leaders.
The Special Economic Zone of Sihanoukville is a symbol of the Cambodian-Chinese relationship, explains the provincial vice-government long on Sunday, which was optimistic about the prospect of its city to become a little more than a Boomtown casino.
“For me, whatever,” he told AFP. “Look at Macao, look at Las Vegas.”
He said that Sihanoukville praised anyone's investments, according to first, first served.
“Cambodia is a small country. We have no choice.”
The cranes of Chinese construction companies sway on the coast frantically building a luxury commercial station on the seafront, Peninsula Bay.
A project representative described the developer as a “Chinese-Cambodian” company and said that it had been designed to “make Simanoukville again”.
But Chinese investment projects in the world have had mixed results, some prove to be white and others who release their hosts with overwhelming debts.
Or Virak, president of Future Forum, a Cambodian reflection group, believes that the port becomes a “ghost city” full of empty buildings.
“Sihanoukville is the symptom of a broader real estate problem in China. They just export this to us,” he said.
According to the IMF, more than a third of the $ 11 billion in Cambodia are due to China.
A highway of 2 billion US dollars connecting Sihanoukville to the capital Phnom Penh was built with Chinese funds and opened in 2022, but with a minimum of tasks of US $ 15, the two -lane road is generally empty.
A Chinese financed airport of SIEM Reap near the heritage site classified Angkor Wat UNESCO, inaugurated in 2023, is designed to manage 7 million tourists per year – more than a million more than visited the whole country that year.
A 180 km channel connecting the Mekong to the Gulf of Thailand still expects funds from a company belonging to Chinese almost a year after the inauguration.
“Some projects were too mega, too quickly, and there is no organic request for them,” said or Virak, calling some of them blocked. But “economically, you cannot deny China”.
