PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Senate President, Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, has sought support from Lao President H.E. Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith to Cambodia’s Techo Funan Canal project for the national development.
Samdech Techo Hun Sen raised the canal project when holding talks with vising H.E. Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith this morning at the Senate Palace in Phnom Penh, during the latter’s two-day state visit in Cambodia.
The Cambodian senate president affirmed that the project will not affect the environment or the water flow. It will link the Bassac River to the sea route. According to a statement released after the meeting, H.E. Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith expressed his support to the project.
The Funan Techo Canal project has been carefully studied by experts. This canal is 180 kilometres long and 100 metres wide upstream and 80 metres downstream with two navigation lanes. It would be broken ground for construction at the end of 2024, and is expected to take around four years to complete with an estimated cost of some US$1.7 billion.
The canal will link Prek Takeo of Mekong River to the sea in Kep province crossing four provinces: Kandal, Takeo, Kampot and Kep with a total of 1.6 million people living on either side of the waterway.
In the meeting, Samdech Techo Hun Sen and H.E. Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith exchanged views on various agendas as both leaders are old friends and they were both former Prime Minister of their respective countries.
H.E. Thongloun Sisoulith said this visit will further strengthen the relationship between the two neighbouring nations and their peoples. With Samdech Techo Hun Sen as the President of the Senate, he believed that the relationship between both countries’ legislative bodies.
For his part, Samdech Techo Hun Sen lauded the good relations between the two countries and peoples as well as between the Cambodian People’s Party and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.
Samdech Techo Hun Sen also briefed his guest on Cambodia’s current development, particularly key achievements in the past eight months under the leadership of the new Royal Government.