Koh Thom Bridge connects Cambodia to the World

Tin Sokhavuth

The Cambodian-Chinese friendship bridge in Koh Thom district, Kandal province. Photo: Prime Minister Hun Sen's Facebook page

The inauguration of another Cambodian-Chinese friendship bridge in Koh Thom district, Kandal province occurred on Monday in the presence of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

For this event, a live video was broadcasted on Prime Minister's Facebook page.

The bridge is 415 meters long, 13.5 meters wide. The construction of the bridge started in 2014. Overall, the bridge cost around $19.39 million. It was China which provided most of the funding as loan with low interest. However, the government contributed $2.8 million to the construction of the bridge.

The bridge connects the eastern region of the Tonle Bassac's riverbank to the western region of the riverbank. This connection could help farmers to transport their crop to cities and to Vietnam.

According to Prime Minister Hun Sen, the bridge is connecting Cambodia to other countries in the region as well as to the world. It is also the part of the development plan designed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries.

"This policy of transport infrastructure connection is not solely belong to Cambodia, it is also a common development program made by other countries in the region," said Prime Minister Hun Sen in his speech at the inauguration of the bridge.

Prime Minister Hun Sen added that Cambodian infrastructure development is aligned with the "Belt and Road Initiative" of the People's Republic of China, due to the fact that provisions from countries in the region could easily reach China through Cambodia. And Koh Thom Bridge will play a very important role for this regional flow of goods.

He also said that his party's political agenda is also to develop hard and soft infrastructure. As a result, his party (CPP) has been setting up four development priorities to develop the country - human resource, transportation infrastructure, water resource, and energy.

The Belt and Road Initiative mentioned by Prime Minister, is the development program proposed by Chinese president Xi Jinping, in a view to connect together more than 40 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Experts say that the Belt and Road Initiative is China's ambition to have a bigger role in the world, typically in global business and cooperation.

Mr. Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, told reporters that the Belt and Road Initiative will give Cambodia an opportunity to better integrate itself in the Asean Economic Community (AEC).

He added that his government's foreign policy is to be friend with all countries around the world. It is an "open sky" policy. Hence the fact that Cambodia is receiving fund from China doesn't mean Cambodia has to be foe with other nations.