PHNOM PENH, March 2 -- Cambodia on Wednesday granted a concessional contract to the Cambodia Fiber Optic Communication NetworkCFOCN, a subsidiary of Shenzhen-based HyalRoute Group, to invest 69.7 million U.S. dollars in constructing and operating submarine cables and a landing station in southwestern Preah Sihanouk province.

The contract was inked here by Cambodian Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Prak Sokhonn and chairman of CFOCN Huang Xinglong

Kan Channmeta, Secretary of State of Cambodian Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, said the contract is made in the form of BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer) with a period of 25 years before the company transfers the submarine cables and landing station to the government.

"This project will contribute to increasing the percentage of Internet users in Cambodia from the current 45 percent, or 6.5 million people, to about 80 percent in 2020," he said in a press conference after the signing ceremony.

"I'm confident that the project will significantly contribute to the development of information and communication technology in Cambodia," he said.

Channmeta said the would-be submarine cables will have the capacity of 1.8 Terabits per second.

HyalRoute Group said in a statement that the contract would move forward its on-going project of Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) Submarine Cable Cambodia Branch to the stage of construction.

The AAE-1 Submarine Cable, a next-generation cable system built by an all-star consortium of 19 global telecoms, ventures to be the largest (25,000 km) and the newest cable to link major Asian, African, Middle Eastern and European nations via the lowest latency subsea route for over 15 years, the statement said.

"Thus it is expected to significantly bridge the digital divide between Cambodia and developed areas in the world," it said.

Joseph MC Chan, chairman of AAE-1 Management Committee, said AAE-1 could help bring the nations closer, provide additional means of communication to the people in Cambodia, connecting them to all parts of the World.

"Couple with the Belt and Road Initiative from China," he said, "the economic growth is sure to be accelerated further over the next decade, booming up the economies in Asia, Middle East and Africa."

He said HyalRoute Group will invest a total amount of 69.7 million U.S. dollars in the project, which is due to be completed and ready-for-service by end of 2017.

When the project is completed, Cambodia will no longer depend on the neighboring countries, namely Thailand and Vietnam, in terms of international bandwidth, according to the company's statement.

HyalRoute Group is the leading telecommunication infrastructure provider in the ASEANand the neighboring region.

Within the last decade, the firm has constructed 10,248 km of terrestrial fibre optic cable that covers all the 25 provinces and cities in Cambodia, and the number of customers, who have access to network coverage, reached 300,000 households, the statement said.

Besides, it has also constructed nearly 10,000 km of terrestrial fibre optic cable in Myanmar, while the project in Laos is now under construction.