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Cambodia to directly ship goods to US, EU by 2030
By 2030, Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) will be able to ship goods directly without any transit to the US and European Union (EU) markets, said Sun Chanthol, Minister of Public Works and Transports (MPWT) yesterday.
The PAS, which is fast developing in three phases with financing support from Japan, will gear itself to receive larger vessels that would take goods to the US and EU markets without transits.
The target of goods waterway shipment was revealed yesterday by Chanthol while delivering a presentation on infrastructure projects to about 350 students at the Techo Sen Institute of Public Works and Transport in the MPWT complex in Russey Keo district, Phnom Penh.
Chanthol said goods that are currently shipped from Cambodia through PAS to the US and EU markets are lifted onto small vessels at the port and then they are lifted out of those vessels and shifted onto larger ones when they arrived in Singapore or Hong Kong that ship to the US or EU, which costs shipments twice—both financially and in terms of time consumption.
“Currently, large vessels cannot enter our ports as the depth of water is shallow and so the port needs to be rehabilitated to deeper … and so we will no longer have to ship our goods by the existing means,” said Chanthol, adding that the port’s development has been divided into three phases with financing support from Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Chanthol, who is also senior minister, pointed out that PAS has been recruiting a contractor to build a new container port that would be 14.5 metres deep—expected to be completed in 2026 on the first phase, which would enable 93 percent of a total number of large vessels in the Asia Pacific region to enter PAS.
Meanwhile, PAS has also been recruiting a company to conduct a study on the development of PAS to 16.5 metres deep and 17.5 metres deep for the third phase.
PAS listed on the Main Board of CSX on June 8, 2017, entered into a sale and purchase agreement to sell its 130-hectare land in Bet Trang commune of Preah Sihanouk province at $20 per square metre.
The process of transferring hard title deeds for the parcel of 130 hectares of land that PAS sold to a buyer in 2021 was completed early this year after it made a loss of about $3.5 million in the last quarter of 2022, said PAS’s unaudited interim condensed financial information for the three-month and twelve-month periods ended December 31, 2022.
PAS is a public autonomous institution that is under the technical supervision of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) and the financial supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and was registered as a state-owned public enterprise with the Ministry of Commerce to the sole international and commercial deep-sea port in Cambodia.
In its status as a public autonomous institution, PAS has obtained extensive authority and major duties from the government to carry out its activities to provide seaport services and related services such as bringing vessels in and out and providing them with supplies, conducting cargo handling, offloading, loading and transporting, according to the report.
There are about 6,000 foreign vessels entering and leaving sea and river ports annually in Cambodia, according to the figures of MPWT.
Japan-financed Port Electronic Data Interchange (Port EDI) system made a soft launch to put an end to paper-based procedures for private sector vessels’ entrance into and exit out of PAS and Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) to improve effectiveness, efficiency, transparency and cost-saving.
Japanese Ambassador Mikami Masahiro said he expects that the Port EDI system will support fostering a logistics system in Cambodia, increasing the number of goods by more usage of the ports and developing the domestic economy in future, expanding the functions of PAS and PPAP to develop their competitiveness in the international market, which is essential for smooth economic recovery after Covid-19 pandemic crisis.
“In this regard, the rarely-developed port electronic data interchange system will enable vessel companies to submit applications and notifications in relation to the entrance and leave of vessels via the digital system and ports themselves to be modernised to international ports,” Mikami said.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501254285/cambodia-to-directly-ship-goods-to-us-eu-by-2030/