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Prime Minister Hun Sen is scheduled to pay a state go to to China for talks on new infrastructure tasks in Cambodia, together with the Phnom Penh-Bavet Expressway. The go to will coincide with the sixty fifth anniversary of the 2 nations’ bilateral relations.
Talking at a groundbreaking ceremony for a bridge development venture spanning the Mekong River in Kratie province on January 2, Hun Sen revealed that beside the expressway connecting to the Vietnamese border, extra new tasks will even be mentioned through the go to.
The premier mentioned he would request that China assist with a venture to construct a highway connecting to the border with Laos. He mentioned he had proposed the thought to Chinese language ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian.
Hun Sen famous that Cambodia plans to spend about $200 million of its personal capital in US {dollars} to construct the bridge in Kratie in addition to the expressway – the second constructed by a Chinese language conglomerate after the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville expressway – that may join Lvea Em district to the Vietnamese border.
He reiterated that the development of bridges and roads that China has helped construct are a testomony to the Cambodian-Chinese language “ironclad” friendship and the achievements of China’s Belt and Street Initiative (BRI).
Ro Vannak, co-founder of the Cambodian Institute for Democracy, mentioned that whereas China’s help by way of BRI may assist stimulate the Kingdom’s financial development with important infrastructure, it might not be sustainable over the long run within the absence of fine governance.
“It’s doable [to fall into a debt trap] if there are not any mechanisms and measures to make sure good governance or implement the ideas of efficient and accountable mortgage administration,” he defined.
Meas Ny, a social improvement researcher, mentioned that regardless of any dangers, it’s the right determination for the Kingdom to simply accept international monetary help and loans from China at current in an effort to develop the nation, and this has labored as a result of the Kingdom’s infrastructure improvement has taken off over the previous decade.
He mentioned Cambodia’s debt can not but be thought of a state of emergency though the federal government has practically $10 billion in international money owed excellent as of the tip of 2022.
Nonetheless, Ny cautioned that the Cambodian authorities must stay vigilant about its ranges of debt to China because of the excessive rates of interest and to keep away from defaulting on it as skilled by Sri Lanka and a few African international locations.
Kin Phea, director of the Worldwide Relations Institute on the Royal Academy of Cambodia, mentioned China’s monetary help to construct infrastructure in Cambodia has had a constructive affect and that the federal government has already considered the problems with China’s loans and won’t fall into the debt entice as some concern.
“With the development of important infrastructure beneath credit score help from different international locations, not simply China however any nation, the standard, accountability and transparency of the tasks as they’re deliberate and underway must be the priorities,” Phea mentioned.
As for international coverage, he mentioned China’s substantial monetary help to Cambodia has not had a damaging affect on their relations with another international locations because the Kingdom has opened its doorways to diplomacy with each nation and would all the time settle for investments from all sides.
He famous that when Cambodia objected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and took a important stance on it, successfully siding with the EU and US on the problem in opposition to Russia and China, it didn’t appear to trigger any stress or strife between Cambodia and China in anyway, proving that the Kingdom’s international coverage remained impartial and impartial.
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