BEIJING: China and Cambodia have agreed to build safe and stable supply chains together and to strengthen cooperation in transportation infrastructure, they said in a joint statement released by China’s foreign ministry on Friday (Apr 18).
The two countries also signed a deal on the construction of a major canal Cambodia hopes will transform its economic fortunes, though the investment and scale of the project have been apparently trimmed.
The agreements came at the conclusion of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-nation tour of Southeast Asia that included stops in Vietnam and Malaysia.
The trip was part of Beijing’s effort to consolidate economic and trading ties with close neighbours in the face of China’s tariff standoff with the United States.
“China supports Cambodia in building the Funan Techo Integrated Water Conservancy Project in accordance with the principles of feasibility and sustainability,” the joint statement said.
The canal project, which was previously estimated to cost US$1.7 billion – nearly 4 per cent of the country’s annual gross domestic product – and stretching 180km, is now valued at US$1.16 billion with a length of 151.6km, the Cambodian government said in a separate statement on Friday.
It will be financed through a public-private partnership, the statement showed, with Cambodian investors holding a 51 per cent stake and Chinese investors holding 49 per cent.
