Kampot pier is going to be built!

Cambodia’s Kampot province’s City Hall plans to build a passenger pier to bring more coastal tourism business from Thailand and Vietnam.

The Phnom Penh Post quoted Kampot City Hall’s administrative director, Sim Vuthea, as saying that the new USD40 million passenger pier will be funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The pier will be located on 4 hectares of land between the border of Teuk Chhu district and Kampot City.

The director said: “The construction of the port is likely to start in mid 2015, or by the end of 2015. We are waiting for procedure progress report from the ADB and approval on how soon the project can be put to contract bidding.”

An immigration office will also be built to facilitate travellers.

Kampot’s Tourism Department director, Soy Kinal, claimed the new pier would make it more convenient for cruise ships and ferries to berth and that might draw more foreign tourists to Cambodia from neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam.

“Kampot is close to the Gulf of Thailand and Phu Quc Island so we can attract people from tourism islands of Thailand and Vietnam,” he said.

The Government-Private Sector Working Group on Tourism co-chair, Ho Vandy, told the local media that the pier would make Cambodia a more attractive destination in the Southeast Asia region.

“Foreign tourists who have tough schedules will be able to include Cambodia in their itineraries as travelling time will be shorter,” he said.

He did not explain how building a pier would shorten travel distances. Like many projects ADB funds the delivery of tourists to the site is more difficult than the actual funding or building of the infrastructure.

The pier is just one prospective project under the ADB’s Greater Mekong Subregion Tourism Infrastructure for Inclusive Growth Project. The project is set to be considered by the ADB’s board on 24 November.

Kampot is a small town in southeast Cambodia and capital of the province with same name. It is a gateway to Bokor National Park, the old French hill station at 1,080-metre which can be visited as a day trip from Kampot or Sihanoukville.

The city is a quiet riverside town just a few kilometres from the Gulf of Thailand. Kampot is well known for its famous black pepper, which is widely available in Cambodia. The town is also famous for its Kampot fish sauce and durian, not exactly the features that will draw thousands of tourists.

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