PREK TAKEO, Cambodia, Aug 5, (AP): Cambodia broke ground Monday on a controversial, China-funded canal to link the capital Phnom Penh to the sea, despite environmental concerns and the risk of straining ties with neighboring Vietnam.
The $1.7 billion, 180-kilometer (111 miles) Funan Techo canal is planned to connect the country’s capital with Kep province on Cambodia’s south coast, giving it access to the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia hopes the 100-meter (328 feet)-wide, 5.4-meter (17.7 feet)-deep canal will lower the cost of shipping goods to the country's sole deep-sea port, Sihanoukville, and reduce reliance on Vietnamese ports.
The project highlights the outsized role that China plays in Cambodian politics and economy. Meanwhile, concerns remain about the potential environmental impacts of the canal, especially on the flow of the Mekong River, which feeds millions of people across six countries through its fish and the agriculture that it sustains.
The project has Vietnam worried, both about the effect on its Mekong Delta rice-growing and about Cambodia moving out of its orbit, said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
"There is a concern that most of the Cambodian exports might be diverted from the current route, crossing the Vietnamese border to Vietnamese ports and moving away from that to Cambodian ports,” he said.
But Hanoi has expressed its concerns quietly, if at all, Giang said. Given the "complex historical legacy" between Cambodia and Vietnam - despite strong bilateral ties, the two nations have a contentious relationship - Vietnam is reticent to openly criticize Cambodia lest it be seen as impinging on its neighbor's sovereignty, he said.
Analysts say that the infrastructure project is in part an effort by Cambodia’s ruling elite to invigorate support for Hun Manet, who last year took over the wheel of government from his father, Hun Sen, who led Cambodia for 38 years.
The government declared Monday - also Hun Sen’s birthday - a holiday so Cambodians could participate in the "celebration in a joyful, crowded and proud manner.” Thousands of people wearing t-shirts with photographs of the father and son began gathering at the canal site, that was covered in Cambodian flags. Billboards promoting the economic benefits of the canal dominated the countryside.
The canal will promote "national prestige, the territorial integrity and the development of Cambodia,” Manet said, adding that the country had built bigger and more expensive infrastructure projects before. But this "historic” canal was different and had nationwide support, he said.