National Road No.3 Officially Inaugurated

The National Road No. 3 from Phnom Penh (Chom Chao) to Kampot (134.8 Km) on November 14 was inaugurated by the Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdach Hun Sen, token 36 months construction (June 2, 2008 –June 1, 2011), cost USD41.5 Million ( South Korea’s loan USD31.9 million, and USD9.6 million funded by the Royal Government).

Coincide to this, the ground-breaking event to restore another six roads with the total length of 106 kilometers were also together taken placed; i.e. national road 31-33-117, Kampot bypass road, road 33 from Kampot provincial capital to Veal Rinh, and construction of Cambodia-Vietnam border check-points Prek Chak (Kampot) to Sa Xia (Ha Tien).

Among the six roads, four projects are financed by South Korea’s loans including (1) the National Road No. 31 from Bek Kous to Kampong Trach, (2) the National Road No. 33 from Kampong Trach to the provincial town of Kompot, (3) the Provincial Road No. 117 from Ang Sophy at the intersection of the National Road No. 31 to Ton Hon (Cambodia-Vietnam Border), and (4) bypass road of Kampot Town from Choum Kriel commune intersected with the National Road No. 33 to Kampong Kreng at the intersection of National Road No. 3.

The remaining three projects were funded by the ADB’s loans and Australian Government’s grant including the restoration project of National Road No. 33 from Kampong Trach to Cambodia-Vietnam border, the construction project of border checkpoint at Prek Chak (Kampot) - Sa Sia (Ha Tieng) border and the maintenance project of the National Road No. 3 from Kampot Town to Veal Rinh.

“The road network will facilitate trade of agro-industrial and sea products such as sea salt, seafood, fruits, and the highly-rated Kampot pepper,” said the Prime Minister. “…it also allow the phosphate fertilizer factory and Chak Krey Ting cement factory to better run their operations in order to serve the agriculture and construction sectors, and promote non-smoke industry sector such as nature tourism at Bok Kor Mountain and Kep coastal area, and Sihanoukville coastal area, which is also the international seaport and the dragon head of the Cambodia’s economy.” 

These interwoven roads complement each other in their role as sea corridor, corresponding with the importance placed by international community, in particular by Greater Mekong Sub-region countries and by Cambodia-Vietnam bilateral cooperation, as these roads not only serve the transport from Phnom Penh to other parts and seaports of Cambodia, but they also diversify traffic to reduce traffic accidents, which are causing disability, deaths, as well as losses of public and private properties. This bypass road would also reduce the travelling time and transport cost to save people money and reduce poverty incidence of our citizens in the Great Mekong Sub-region countries, said Samdach Hun Sen. 

The road network will benefit the entire population especially citizens living in Phnom Penh, Kompong Speu, Kandal, Takeo, Kep, and Kompot, he added.

The National Road No. 3 construction project from Cham Chao to the Kampot’s provincial town, which is now officially inaugurated, is the result of Premier Hun Sen request to the Republic of Korea in ASEAN Plus 3 Summit at Bali, Indonesia in 2004 which was signed by H.E. Hor Nam Hong, Minister of Foreign Affair and International Cooperation and H.E. Shin Hyun-Suk, the then Republic of Korean’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia on May 08, 2007,said H.E. Tram Iv Tek, Minister of Public Works and Transport.

This segment which links to 32.79-kilometer road from Kampot Town to Tropeang Ropov, officially inaugurated on July 03, 2007. It is also connected with road segment from Tropeang Ropov to Veal Rinh at the intersection of the National Road No. 4, which has been constructed and its maintenance was completed on June 27, 2005 by the loans of the World Bank, he added.

The National Road No. 3 was built by Korea’s Kok Dong Engineering and Construction Company, Korea’s international technical consultancy company in cooperation with Korea’s Yusin Company, and inspected by two domestic technical consultancy companies, Kesec and Vido.

Cambodia and Korea at the same day also signed another loan agreement of USD52, 544 million to restore National Road. 21 Phnom Penh (Ta Kmao) to Chrey Thom (Vietnam-Cambodia border) by Cambodian Minister of Economy and Finance H.E. Kiet Chhon, and Director of Korean Import and Export Bank Mr. Sang-Wan Byun.

Ambassador of the Republic of Korean to the Kingdom of Cambodia H.E. Chang Ho-Jin said include the loan assistance to restore National road 21, from Ta Kmao to Chrey Thom, Korean concessional loan to Cambodia reached USD390 million.

“The government of South Korea is happy to help contribute to the Cambodian development via this economic-social development assistances, so as infrastructure development,’ said Ambassador.