Prime Minister Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet has expressed his profound thanks to the Government and people of Japan for their generous support to the logistic sector in Cambodia, especially the upgrading of capacity of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) in Preah Sihanouk province.
Addressing the official inauguration ceremony of the PAS’ 253-metre-long additional container terminal under Japan’s ODA loan this morning, Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet said PAS now can handle the docking of ships around the world from 18 to 38 percent.
‘Before, we can handle only 18 percent of the ships here, while 82 percent, we have to reload to other ships in Singapore or some other ports, but now we can handle up to 38 percent,’ he underlined.
In order to further enhance the accessibility of the PAS, Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister asked Japan to further support its development in the future.
For his part, H.E. Ueno Atsushi, Ambassador of Japan to Cambodia, reaffirmed Japan’s continued support for the developm
ent and progress of Cambodia.
H.E. Peng Ponea, Minister of Public Works and Transport, said Japan is one of the main partners and supporters of the PAS development, including this additional terminal.
PAS is the Kingdom’s sole international and commercial deep seaport covering approximately 125 ha of land area. It facilitates maritime transport, thereby obtaining such natural advantages as deep sea water, a string of islands to protect strong wind and tidal wave, and lies in the location that does not require permanent dredging of navigational channels.
PAS was built in early 1956. It has been expanded consecutively under the support of Japan. In 2023, the seaport handled almost 800,000 TEUs per year, 1,506 ships, and over 19 million tonnes of cargo, generating more than US$95 million income. In the first seven months of this year, PAS’ cargo throughput rose by 26.52 percent to 5.7 million tonnes, while the number of containers reached over 570,000 TEUs, up 26.18 percent, generating more than US$66 million
income, up 26.52 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
According to H.E. Peng Ponea, PAS plans to develop the port in three phases. By 2026, the new container terminal, which will be 350 metres long and 14.5 metres deep with a container capacity of 1.45 million TEUs per year, is expected to be completed.
After that, PAS will proceed with the second and then the third phase, which will increase the container capacity to more than 2.67 million TEUs per year by 2030.
Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse