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Cambodia: $1.8B spent on 3 new airport projects
Three companies spent more than $1.8 billion on their new airport projects in Cambodia till the end of the first quarter in 2023, according to the latest report from the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA).
The report pointed out while one company spent more than the budget, one nearly ran out of funds. Two companies plan to operations this year, the SSCA report indicated.
Yunnan Airinvestment (Cambodia) Airport Management Co., Ltd. (YACA) spent $89 million more than its initial investment plan for the Siem Reap Angkor International Airport project as of March 31, according to SSCA’s brief update on the Construction of the Three New International Airport Infrastructure.
The update on the new airport project infrastructures in Cambodia showed that YACA spent more than $969 million since the construction started on March 15, 2022. The initial investment was estimated to be approximately $880 million in 2016, but was increased to $1.1 billion in 2022.
SSCA’s Spokesman Sin Chansereyvutha told Khmer Times yesterday that the increase in investment for the Siem Reap Angkor International Airport project was mainly due to the re-design of passenger receiving capacity facilities to 7 million from 5 million passengers a year. Besides, the 25-35 percent increase in costs for materials during the Covid-19 pandemic also affected the project.
“Overall, the development of all new airports in our country has progressed remarkably as such projects are more complex than other types of projects in terms of technology, science and human resource development, but they have been going forward well even though they have faced some challenges or a bit delayed,” Chansereyvutha said.
The initial plans of YACA were to spend 36 months or three years to complete the construction of Siem Reap Angkor International Airport project on 700.06 hectares of land. It is scheduled to be officially launched in mid-October 2023 at a ceremony to be presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen and top officials from the Chinese government, said the report.
YACA has been granted 55 years of concession from 2016 to 2071 under an agreement signed in October 2016 that includes five years for construction—92 percent completed as of March 31—and 50 years for operations of the 4E class large-scale international airport with ICAO code as VDSA and IATA code as SAI on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model.
The report pointed out that approximately $20 million is left with the Union Development Group Co Ltd to complete the construction of Dara Sakor International Airport in Koh Kong province on 218 hectares of land.
It spent $180 million out of its total budget of $200 million and the airport is scheduled for a soft launch this year.
Meanwhile, the Dara Sakor International Airport project completed 90.5 percent as of March 31. The construction, which started in 2017 is expected to take 48 months or four years after a concession agreement was signed between the government and the developer on April 26, 2016, on a Greenfield BOT investment model on 218 hectares of land in Botum Sakor district.
Under the concession for 99 years from 2008 to 2107, Dara Sakor International Airport project would be developed as 4E airport category in the first phase and 4F in the second phase with ICAO code as VDDS and IATA code as DYSA to be able to receive Code E airplanes and serve up to seven million passengers a year and 10,000 tons a year of air cargo.
Cambodia Airport Investment Co Ltd—a joint venture between the Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia represented by SSCA and Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation—spent $652 million as of March 31, 2023 on the construction of New Phnom Penh International Airport or Techo International Airport, according to the report.
Techo International Airport is scheduled to be officially inaugurated in mid-2024 at a ceremony to be presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen in Kandal Steung district of Kandal province. It is projected to receive 13-15 million passengers a year and 175,000 tons of air cargo per year, according to the report. The construction of the road connecting Samdech Hun Sen Road to the new airport project has been completed 37 percent, while the airport project is 46 percent completed.
The construction of the Techo International Airport started in 2019 and would take 46 months or four years to complete and operate as full Greenfield 4F airport category on Design-Build-Finance-Own-Operate (DBFOO) or Build-Own-Operate (BOO) investment model, but has been neither registered nor designated to have ICAO and IATA code names yet.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501276688/1-8b-spent-on-3-new-airport-projects/