• Society

The New Siem Reap Airport Set to Boost Tourism, PM Hun Sen Says

• By Sao Phal Niseiy
• April 3, 2022 4:28 PM

Built through a Chinese business agreement, it is scheduled to open in one year

PHNOM PENH–Prime Minister Hun Sen on April 3 toured the construction site of Siem Reap Province’s future airport, noting that this facility built through Chinese investment will help boost the country’s tourism industry as the sector recovers from the pandemic.  

“We will have a new airport in Siem Reap,” he said. “I want to take this opportunity to inform our Cambodian fellows why we need a new airport even though we already have had an airport here…The current airport might [have been] big in the past, but now it doesn’t have enough capacity to accommodate bigger aircrafts and a large number of tourists.”

As Hun Sen explained, the construction of the Siem Reap Angkor International Airport began on March 15, 2020, and is expected to be completed by March 30, 2023. According to the document signed in the presence of Hun Sen and Chinese President Xi Jinping during his state visit to Cambodia in 2016, the project represents a $880 million investment by China under a 55-year-build-operate-transfer (BOT) model agreement.

Moreover, Hun Sen said, as many as 1,000 workers—70 percent of them are Cambodians—are working on the project.

The prime minister went on to say that there has been long-standing concern over the damage the new airport may cause to Siem Reap Province’s cultural heritage and especially to the monuments of the Angkor Archeological Park.

Since this new airport is located in Soutr Nikum District, around 50 kilometers away from Siem Reap City, the prime minister continued, the new airport will not affect the historical and cultural sites in the province.

Cambodia’s tourism sets to reap greater benefits as the country recovers from the pandemic

In the same address, Prime Minister Hun Sen also emphasized that the new airport is vital for Cambodia’s tourism industry to be revived in the future, and rejected the idea that the airport project may only benefit Chinese investors.

“Don’t get confused, that this new airport only provides benefits for Chinese compan[ies],” Hun Sen said, pointing out that this infrastructure will be handed over to Cambodia in 55 years. “We need to welcome a large number of tourists in the future. We already received nearly 7 million foreign tourists [per year] in pre-COVID times.

“And if not for the COVID-19 pandemic, we would have received nearly 10 million already,” the prime minister said. “That’s why we need modern airports that can handle this large number of visitors.”

Cambodia has seen a sharp increase in international visitor arrivals over the first three months of 2022 following the country’s decision to offer visa service upon on arrival at international airports and to relax COVID-19 health restrictions for vaccinated people. According to a recent report released by the Ministry of Tourism, a total of 151,680 foreign tourists visited Cambodia from January through March 2022, which represented an increase of 114 percent compared to the number of foreign arrivals during the same period in 2021.