(5 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Prek Takeo, Cambodia – 05 August 2024
1. Wide of Cambodian Prime Minster Hun Manet inaugurating the groundbreaking of the Funan Techo canal
2. Various of balloons in sky
3. Various of section of canal
4. Wide of Hun Manet with dignitaries
5. Wide of cheering crowd
6. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Hun Manet, Cambodian Prime Minister:
"Today, I have the great honor and pride to witness the historic groundbreaking ceremony of the Funan Techo Canal."
7. Various of crowd at event
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Phin Somaly, Ministry of Commerce official:
“We are celebrating today for the whole benefit of Cambodian people, not for only just anyone but for the whole of Cambodian people.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Prek Takeo, Cambodia – 30 July 2024
9. Various drone shots showing the start of the canal ++MUTE++
STORYLINE:
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet broke ground Monday on a controversial, China-funded canal to link the country’s capital Phnom Penh to the sea, despite environmental concerns and the risk of straining ties with neighboring Vietnam.
The $1.7 billion, 180-kilometer (111 miles) Funan Techo canal is planned to connect the country’s capital with Kep province on Cambodia’s south coast, giving it access to the Gulf of Thailand.
Cambodia hopes the 100-meter (328 feet)-wide, 5.4-meter (17.7 feet)-deep canal will lower the cost of shipping goods to the country’s sole deep-sea port, Sihanoukville, and reduce reliance on Vietnamese ports.
The government declared Monday a holiday so Cambodians could participate in the event. Thousands of people began gathering at the canal site, that was covered in Cambodian flags. Billboards promoting the economic benefits of the canal dominated the countryside.
Declaring the project officially underway, Manet said said that the country had built bigger and more expensive infrastructure projects before but that this “historic” canal was different and had nationwide support, he said.
“We will build this canal, no matter the cost,” he said.
He emphasized that while the canal would be jointly built by Chinese and Cambodian companies, the latter would have a 51% majority share and thus maintain control.
The project highlights the outsized role that China plays in Cambodian politics and economy.
Meanwhile, concerns remain about the potential environmental impacts of the canal, especially on the flow of the Mekong River, which feeds millions of people across six countries through its fish and the agriculture that it sustains.
The Cambodian government has dismissed these concerns.
Some analysts say the project has Vietnam worried, both about the effect on its Mekong Delta rice-growing and about Cambodia moving out of its orbit.
AP video shot by Anton Delgado
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