It was 2008 when the Cambodian government appointed the Chinese-owned Union Development Group (UDG), a subsidiary of Wanlong Group based in Tianjin, to build a $3.8 billion mega project in Dara Sakor.
UDG was equipped with a 99-year lease and was mandated to build an international airport, a deep-water seaport, an industrial park, and luxury resort facilities in the country’s special economic zone. The complex is designed to utilize about 20 percent of Cambodia’s coastal area, covering around 36,000 hectares of land, estimated to be around half the size of Singapore.
Cambodia has borne much of the burden in keeping the project alive, including sacrificing the surrounding environment and the livelihood of the local people and fending off accusations from the U.S. which claims that Dara Sakor would be used as China’s military base. Now, it is perhaps a good time to ask what can Cambodia stand to benefit from this multi-billion dollar project.
Out of the many infrastructures it was expected to have built, only the construction of the Dara Sakor International Airport has been finished. And still, there is no report that the airport will be opened at the expected date, which was set to be in the mid of 2023.
This seems to contradict Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism’s suggestion that the Dara Sakor project is aligned with “Visit Cambodia Year 2023” — as Cambodia hosted SEA Games and Paragame, and “2020-2025 Roadmap for Recovery of Cambodia Tourism During and Post COVID-19”.
Currently, Cambodia has three operational international airports: the Phnom Penh International Airport, Siem Reap International Airport, and Sihanoukville International Airport. There are three more international airports that are being built in Cambodia, which are Techo Takhmao International Airport, Siem Reap Angkor International Airport, and Kok Kong Airport – each cost around $1.5 billion, $1 billion, and $40 million respectively.
Given Cambodia’s territory of just a little over 185,000 km and its comparatively small population of 15 million people, it is questionable if the Dara Sakor International Airport would significantly benefit Cambodia, especially since it is located in a remote area of the country.
While the project would be a boost for Cambodia’s transportation and tourism sectors (if successful), it seems to also had an adverse impact on some parts of the local community. Thousands were forcibly relocated from their homes. Unable to fish or farm like they used to, they took up jobs as cleaners, security guards, waiters, and construction workers for the company.
In 2021, one of Cambodia’slast remaining independent media outlets, CamboJA News reported that forced displacement of the local population had occurred at the outset of this initiative, and, within just the first five years, an estimated 1,140 families from 10,000 hectares of land had been pushed out. Additionally, in 2011, around 1963 families were forced to leave while an estimated 1,500 houses were destroyed. Only about 1,333 families received half-hearted compensation over a decade after.
Dara Sakor Project has also threatened the ecosystem in the Botum Sakor National Park, which is home to more than 500 birds and 44 mammal species including critically endangered species. Over the last three decades, around 30,000 hectares of forest were destroyed. Deforestation accelerated in 2012 after the project commenced. It was estimated that around 3,000 hectares of the primary forests were destroyed in that year alone. Deforestation was at its peak again in 2019 and 2020, in which around 2,230 and 1,450 hectares of forest were destroyed respectively.
Looking back, there were ways to avoid this. There should have been a publicly-available feasibility study before starting the project. The government should have also not offered protected lands, or parts of Cambodia’s national park, to the developers. Unfortunately, this is not what happened.
A Pact Made With China
Despite Dara Sakor’s impact on the environment and livelihood of the Cambodian people, the project remains in progress and receives considerable support from the government. The project is often pitched as part of China’s orbit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive infrastructure diplomacy in the region, according to a report from Reuters.
The Cambodian government seems to be determined to see Dara Sakor Project to be completed.
In July 2015, Cambodia’s Minister of Defense Tea Banh paid a bilateral military-to-military visit to China. Very surprisingly at the time, he also visited the head office of UDG in Beijing.
Following the US imposed sanctions on UDG in 2020, the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) issued a statement to defend UDG, implying the US falsely accused UDG.
Similarly, the Minister of Defence also defended UDG in his conversation with the US Ambassador Patrick Murphy, in which he stated that the US “unfairly imposed sanctions” on UDG. The big support given to UDG highlights Cambodia’s effort to keep expanding its tourism sector.
Some of China’s BRI ventures else in Southeast Asia have hit delays due to the pandemic, although they have mostly resumed or recovered as borders reopen. Indonesia’s Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Rail project, for one, was delayed several times. In Malaysia, developers agreed to renew contracts and reduce construction costs.
Similarly, the 609 km Bangkok-Nong Khai High-Speed Train (HST), connecting Bangkok to China’s province of Kunming via Laos that was agreed between Thailand and China has been delayed for many years. Despite the initial construction in 2017, only 3.5 km of road has been built.
Today, 15 years in, Cambodia remains faithful, clinging to the hope of economic rewards that Dara Sakor promised to bring.
Sokvy Rim is a research fellow at the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP). His research interests focus on Cambodia’s foreign policy and its engagement with China and Southeast Asian countries.
