Cambodia to upgrade road to Siem Reap without Thai help

The Nation/Asia News Network

Without financial assistance from Thailand, Cambodia has begun renovation of its Highway 68 connecting between tourism city of Siem Reap to Thai border province on its own expense.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen presided over the ground braking ceremony for the road renovation on Saturday (Dec.5), according to local media. Many senior officials in the Cambodian government presented at the ceremony.

The Cambodian government would spend $33 million (S$45.6258 million) to renovate the 117 kilometer road from Kralanh district in Siem Reap province to O' Smach in Oddar Meanchey province, which is located next to Thailand's border Surin province. It was expected to complete by 2 years.

Cambodia rejected the Thai financial assistance of Bt 1.4 billion (S$58.38 million) to renovate the road after the diplomatic row. The two countries signed an agreement on the loan in August but Hun Sen decided to reject the aid as he blamed his Thai counterpart Abhisit Vejjajiva for failure to confirm the assistance on time.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the ceremony that local people in areas are waiting for the improvement of Highway 68 for long time. The road would link Cambodian west and east regions as well as western neighbour Thailand, he said. The road would facilitate transportation between Asean and countries in the Mekong region, he said.

"The current trend of the world is globalisation, the era of economic blockade has gone, practice of relying on force to resolve disputes is also obsolete," Hun Sen said indirectly implied to the cut of Thai loan. "Separatism and isolation is completely incompatible with the trend of the world."

Hun Sen said his government would join with neighbouring countries to develop border areas. "And cooperation with Thailand is still viable although the two countries are at loggerhead," he said.

Thailand downgraded diplomatic relations with Cambodia since Hun Sen appointed fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra as his economic advisor and refused to extradite him.

Bangkok recalled its ambassador back to the capital and Phnom Penh reciprocated with the same action in November.

Angered by Thaksin's presence in Cambodia, Thailand scrapped the deal on maritime and threatened to review the financial assistance for the Highway 68.

Prime Minister Abhisit earlier phoned to Hun Sen to confirm that the loan is still on. However Hun Sen made the decision to reject the loan as the Thai government failed to send the confirmation in written form to Phnom Penh on time.

Normalisation of the relation is also a condition but in a phone conversation last week, both premiers failed to reach a common ground to reassign their respective ambassadors to resume functions, according to a diplomatic source.

In another development, Simarak Na Nakhon Phanom, the mother of a detained Thai national Sivarak Chutipong would visit Cambodia today to listen to Cambodian court's ruling on the spy charge due on Tuesday.

Sivarak was arrested on November 12 for the charge of stealing Thaksin's flight information and passed it to a Thai diplomat who was later expelled from Cambodia.