Cambodia Searches for Funds to Complete ASEAN RailwayThe Cambodian government needs 300 million US dollars to build and upgrade Cambodia's stretch of a proposed railway of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), scheduled by the regional body to be completed by 2006, according to the Cambodia Daily Thursday.ASEAN ministers have agreed to build a modern railway from Singapore through Thailand and ending in Kunming, China, by 2006, which will enter Cambodia at Poipet and follow the existing line along the southern shore of the Tonle Sap lake into Phnom Penh. Studies and surveys have already been completed, and construction can begin as soon as the money is found, said Sokhom Peakvanmony, director of the Royal Railway Station in Phnom Penh. He said that the government is planning to form a national committee of pursue funding and has already asked the Japanese government for 11.4 million dollars in grants to the Overseas Development Agency, adding that the government has also proposed to other such donor countries as France and Germany, and funding institutions. Railroad conditions across Cambodia have eroded greatly in the past 30 years so much money is needed for reconstruction and upgrade, he added. |
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