The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) yesterday signed the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract with the Chinese infrastructure construction firm China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) to start the construction of Cambodia’s second expressway project Phnom Penh-Bavet Expressway (PP-Bavet Expressway) worth $1.4 billion early next month. The PPP contract was inked by the Minister of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) Sun Chanthol and CRBC’s General Manager Zhou Yong during a signing ceremony attended by senior officials from both sides and other ministries including the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction at the ministry. According to Chanthol, the construction would take approximately four years to complete. The construction of the 135km-long PP-Bavet Expressway with four lanes would stretch from the Lvea Em district of Kandal province and linked to the National Road No. 1 through a bridge that will be constructed in Dei Ith commune of Kien Svay district. Chanthol said Prime Minister Hun Sen will preside over a groundbreaking ceremony on June 7 to enable CRBC to start the construction of the PP-Bavet Expressway that will be connected to the already-constructed $300 million Ring Road 3 that stretches from National Road 4 and goes through National Roads 2 and 3 connecting to the National Road No 1. “Today, we signed the agreement or contract between the government and the private company and we are prepared for the groundbreaking. To expedite the construction as planned I hope that they will work hard to achieve success same as the first expressway mainly in terms of quality, technical standard, safety protection and so on,” said Chanthol. The PPP contract is divided into two main parts including the key principles for construction and launch of the second expressway operations after the construction is fully completed and appendices that state in detail the implementation of the principles in the contract that both sides have agreed on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model, according to a release by MPWT. The contract would enable CRBC which has constructed the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway worth $0.2 billion lower than PP-Bavet Expressway to operate the latter for 50 years before transferring to the government, but CRBC has also been commissioned by the government to construct a bridge worth about $250 million funded by the national budget. The bridge will be constructed across the Mekong River in a total length of approximately 3.7km—2,250 metres for the bridge itself and the rest of the length for roads to be connected to the bridge—to provide free access to the people who currently use ferries to cross the river as it would be charged if the bridge is invested by any private firm to get financial returns. After construction is completed, PP-Bavet Expressway would stretch from Phnom Penh to Svay Rieng province through Kandal and Prey Veng provinces and connect to Ho Chi Minh-Moc Bai Expressway at the international border gate between Cambodia’s Bavet and Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province, but the connecting points have not been officially confirmed. Chanthol pointed out that the government has formed an inter-ministerial taskforce to work with the Vietnamese counterpart on the determination of a specific point at the international border area between the two countries to connect their respective expressways to each other. “It would be impossible if the two expressways would not be connected,” Chanthol said. He further stated that a specific connecting point must be identified as soon as possible as the officials of the Ministry of Economy and Finance need to address the impacts and buy land for the construction of an administrative building at the border area of the connecting point where officials can work on documentation and run key procedures. “So, we need to work hard together and find a good point and then will build administrative facilities for easy exit and entrance. It would not efficient if we have the expressway, but there are complexities at the border and we together have worked also to simplify the procedures for the people to cross the border between the two countries,” Chanthol pointed out. Chanthol said further that the PP-Bavet Expressway would enable Cambodia to become a storage or logistics hub as it is in the centre among countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) that include China (specifically Yunnan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Chanthol said Vietnam and Thailand trade with each other for billions of US dollars per year, while Cambodia is located in the middle, but the goods they traded has not been transported through or transited in Cambodia, which would make the second expressway to fill this loophole by being connected to the National Road No 5 that has been under construction. “We guarantee here that we will use all of our resources to guarantee the quality same as the first expressway that we have already done and this is our second project in the country and so we will guarantee the time and quality and give the best services to the people of Cambodia,” Zhou Yong said briefly after signing and exchanging the copies of contract with Chanthol.