PHNOM PENH: Senior Minister Sun Chanthol, Minister of Public Works and Transport On July 19, 2022, led a working group and professional officers to inspect the activities and progress of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway construction, including relevant officials, construction company representatives, technical inspection company representatives, and stakeholders.

Senior Minister Sun Chanthol confirmed at a press conference that 95 percent of the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway construction was completed, with the remaining 5 percent with unfinished signs, planting flowers, and cameras. The road will be temporarily open on October 1, and residents will have free access to the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway for one month.

The minister said that before the road opens, the ministry will be holding a public demonstration to show people who have never used it before how to use it.

The Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway is a historic road that exemplifies Cambodian-Chinese friendship and is part of China’s One Belt, One Road plan. The 190-kilometer road was built at a cost of up to 2,000 million US dollars, which is extremely high in comparison to other highways in Cambodia.

Sihaknoukville is a seaside city in Cambodia and the seat of Preah Sihanouk Province, located at the point of an elevated peninsula on the Gulf of Thailand in the country’s southwest. The city is surrounded by a virtually continuous stretch of beaches along its entire coastline, as well as coastal marshlands that border the Ream National Park to the east.