Cambodia’s Controversial Canal Project Gets Boost On Xi Visit
By RFA
A pet project of Cambodia’s ruling Hun clan to build a canal linking the capital with the Gulf of Thailand got a boost as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rounded off a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia on Friday.
The Cambodian government reported the signing Thursday of a public-private partnership contract with China worth $1.15 billion to fund Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal project.
The ambitious project was launched last year but work stopped soon after groundbreaking amid questions over funding for the 151 kilometer (94 mile)-long canal that would link a branch of the Mekong River to a port on the Gulf of Thailand.
Prime Minister Hun Manet posted on Facebook that he met with Wang Tong Zhou, president of the China Communications Construction Company to discuss the construction of the canal. Senate President Hun Sen also posted that in his meeting with the Chinese president, Xi voiced support for the project.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol said on Facebook that the two sides signed five agreements, including the public-private partnership contract, a shareholder agreement, an investment agreement, an engineering, procurement and construction contract, and an operation and maintenance contract.
Cambodia’s state-run Agence Kampuchea Presse said Cambodia investors hold a 51% stake and Chinese investors 49%. The participating companies include Cambodia’s Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation, Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and China Road and Bridge Corporation. It said the project would support 50,000 direct and indirect jobs, and planned completion is by 2028.
Groundbreaking for the canal on Aug. 5, 2024 – longtime leader Hun Sen’s birthday – but the project appears to have made little headway since then.
The canal, which would run from near the capital Phnom Penh to the Gulf of Thailand coast, would reduce Cambodian dependence on Vietnamese ports for sea trade. But the project has raised concerns in Vietnam where the rice-growing Mekong delta is vulnerable to sea water incursions if the flow of fresh water down the Mekong and into the delta is reduced because of the canal.
Kim Sok, a spokesperson for the Cambodian National Resistance Council, a group formed by prominent exiled opponents of Hun Sen, told RFA the government is trying to get China to help complete the Funan Canal before the 2028 general elections in Cambodia.
The Chinese president left Cambodia on Friday, returning to Beijing after a five-day regional swing with earlier stops in Vietnam and Malaysia.
On the trip, Xi sought to present China as a dependable trading partner for Southeast Asia at a time when governments there are worried about the impact of increased U.S. tariffs on their exports.
