Feature: Chinese-built national road facilitates travel, goods transport in SE. Cambodia

PREY VENG, Cambodia, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Linking Prey Veng and Tboung Khmum provinces in southeast Cambodia, the Chinese-built 96.4-km-long and 11-meter-wide National Road No. 11 has facilitated personnel flow and goods transport in the region.

"Previously, traveling from Prey Veng to Tboung Khmum by car or motorbike at this distance took six or seven hours on the bumpy road. Now the time was cut to two or three hours," Leng Heng, a 42-year-old teacher in Prey Veng province, told Xinhua on Monday.

"As a Cambodian proverb goes: 'There is road, there is hope.' China has helped build a lot of roads and bridges in Cambodia, and indeed, they have brought hope for socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Cambodia," he said.

Ly Sreylis, a 24-year-old resident in Prey Veng province, said she is grateful to China for having provided a great deal of assistance to Cambodia for the development of roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

"This road has not only linked the people in Prey Veng and Tboung Khmum provinces, but also connected the hearts of the peoples of Cambodia and China," she said.

The National Road No. 11 was developed by the China Road and Bridge Corporation under a concessional loan from the Chinese government, and it took 30 months to complete, about 14 months earlier than scheduled.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony of the road on Monday, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said the road was the fruit of the close cooperation between the two countries and was a new testament to Cambodia's development.

"I'd like to express my heartfelt thanks to the government and people of China for having helped us to build necessary infrastructure, which is the basis for economic growth," he said.

So far, China has constructed more than 3,000 km of national roads and eight large-scale river bridges in Cambodia, he added.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen extended his profound thanks to China for having provided anti-COVID-19 medical supplies and equipment, as well as vaccines to Cambodia, saying that to date, almost 14.2 million people, or 88.5 percent of the kingdom's 16-million population, have been vaccinated.

"Chinese vaccines are quite safe and effective. So far, no one dies from injecting Chinese jabs," he said.

The Cambodian leader also thanked China for supporting the kingdom to set up a COVID-19 vaccine filling factory.

Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian said under the Belt and Road Initiative, China has helped construct many roads, bridges and other major infrastructure in Cambodia and other developing countries.

"We hope that the road will help develop local economy, trade, and tourism, as well as facilitate transport and trade of rice, fruits and aquatic products in the two provinces," he said.

Cambodian Transport Minister Sun Chanthol said the road has not only improved road infrastructure in the two provinces, but also connected them with other provinces.

"It will ease road traffic, travel for passengers and tourists, and transport of agricultural and agro-industrial products from farms or factories to markets in a faster, more efficient and less expensive manner," he said.