China poaches airport contract
The government has commissioned a Chinese consortium to build a new international airport for Siem Reap and formed a committee to determine how to compensate the French company that operates the city’s existing airport for prematurely ending its concession licence, according to documents obtained on December 27. Under the deal, Chinese state-run Yunnan Investment Holdings Ltd will build a new $880 million airport about 50 kilometres outside Siem Reap’s provincial capital in Sonikum district. The agreement, signed by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and YIHL chairman Sun Yun during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the Kingdom in October, grants a joint investment consortium formed by YIHL, the Yunnan Construction Investment Group and the Yunnan Airport Group an exclusive 55-year build, operate, transfer concession on the new airport. Construction of the greenfield airport on 700 hectares of land provided by the government is expected to take three years, according to Chinese media sources. The plan is to build a 4E class airport, with the possibility of expanding to 4F compliance, which means the airport could receive larger long-haul aircraft.
