Siem Reap airport’s future up in the air
The government is ready to move forward with negotiations on compensation for stripping a French company of its concession to operate Siem Reap’s international airport, while plans for the construction of a new Chinese-operated airport to serve the provincial capital are close to being finalised, a state official said on February 1. In October, the Cambodian government reached an agreement with China’s state-run Yunnan Investment Holdings Ltd to build a new $880 million airport to serve Siem Reap. The agreement gave YIHL and its construction and airport management subsidiaries an exclusive 55-year build, operate, transfer concession on the new airport, replacing the current exclusive agreement with Cambodia Airports, a company majority-owned by France’s Vinci Group, which was set to expire in 2040. The Post reported in December that a government decree signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen called for the formation of an eight-person committee to lead compensation talks with Cambodia Airports, while YIHL would be responsible for distributing the settlement amount once its new airport begins operations.
