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OVER
the course of the past 14 years the nation
of Cambodia has experienced solid economic
growth, which could spell good news for
trade to the Southeast Asian nation.
According
to the World Bank the nation experienced
an uninterrupted spell of double-digit economic
growth between 1998 and 2008. The average
of around 10 per cent per annum did take
a hit during the financial crisis, but in
2010 and 2011 it managed to bounce back.
The
post crisis figure is now around six per
cent, which is still remarkably solid considering
the general state of the world today.
"Cambodia's
trade volumes have been growing in line
with the country's economic growth. This
has seen its ports growing in capacity and
throughput volumes", Nazery Khalid, a senior
fellow at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia,
told Hong Kong Shipping Gazette...
Of
the three main ports in the nation, Phnom
Penh Autonomous Port, Sihanoukville Autonomous
Port and Koh Kong provincial port; the former
teems with activity with a latent ability
to handle container cargoes by the use of
floating and mobile cranes.
It is
now widely believed, said Mr Khalid, that
the port has moved location to Kiem Say
to cater for the nation's growing import
and export trade volumes.
The surge
in exports and the growing commercial profile
of the nation has unsurprisingly snagged
the attention of Toll Royal Railway. According
to a statement issued on the company's website
Toll commenced a rail service connecting
Phnom Penh port and Sihanoukville in December
of last year.
The rail line will
purportedly run three return container services
between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville and
will commence with a modest shuttle of 20
container wagons which is then to be progressively
raised to 60 container wagons per service.
Cambodia's
government is committed to developing its
maritime transportation and port laws and
regulations, as well as its monitoring and
enforcement mechanisms for all relevant
international conventions and rules.
To
that effect, existing regulations are being
updated and augmented to comply with international
maritime conventions to which Cambodia is
party to.
Commenting on the new rail
service from Toll, the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) said it was a significant step
towards completion of the pan-Asian
railroad that it hopes will eventually link
Asia to Europe by rail. The bank also noted
the opportunity it created for Cambodia,
not just in terms of export volumes but
of its broader development.
"It
will position Cambodia as a true sub-regional
transport hub, reducing the time and costs
of transporting a range of products and
creating new jobs and business opportunities
in agro-processing, manufacturing,
and logistic services", a report from
IHS-Fairplay said.
While Cambodia's
past may be tragic, its future is looking
very bright indeed.
With Beijing's
financial backing and technical support,
Phnom Penh inaugurated a new container terminal
in the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port turning
the port into a large hub for logistics
supply and goods collection and distribution,
reports Xinhua.
The terminal not
only connects Phnom Penh Autonomous Port
to Vietnam's Cai Map port, but it also helps
to ship goods directly to Singapore, Malaysia,
and China's Hong Kong and Shanghai, as well
as other neighbouring countries and regions
without ship transfer. That in essence will
help to firmly integrate the port into the
so-called ASEAN grid of interconnectivity.
It
will certainly make for a markedly different
Cambodia when 2014 arrives.
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