Opening the map of Cambodia, a wide highway stretches across the plains and mountains. This end is Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and the other end is Sihanoukville, the largest deep-water port in Cambodia. On October 1, 2022, Cambodia's first expressway, the Jingang Expressway, opened for trial operation. Sun Yaoguo, chief engineer of China Road and Bridge and chairman of Cambodia Golden Port Expressway Co., Ltd., pointed out that the opening of Golden Port Expressway will greatly facilitate the travel of residents along the line and promote economic development along the line, marking that Cambodia has entered the era of expressways.

According to reports, Jingang Expressway is a key project of China-Cambodia joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, which is invested, constructed and operated by China Road and Bridge Engineering Co., Ltd. Jingang Expressway spans 5 provinces and cities in Cambodia, with a total length of 187.05 kilometers and two-way four-lane. During the entire trial operation period in October, Jingang Expressway will be open to all vehicles free of charge. From November 2022 to October 2023, a 20% discount will be implemented, and normal standards will be charged thereafter.

The Jingang Expressway is an example of the successful docking of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Four Corners Strategy of Cambodia. It is the crystallization of friendly exchanges and close cooperation between China and Cambodia, and will make important contributions to Cambodia's economic growth. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said that Phnom Penh is the political and economic center of Cambodia, and Sihanoukville is the largest deep-water port and the largest foreign trade center in Cambodia. The Golden Port Expressway will effectively promote the cost reduction and efficiency increase of cargo transportation between the two places, promote the development of the heavy transportation industry, and help regional connectivity and development. Modern industrial development.

The hometown is more lively and prosperous

On October 1, 2022, the Cambodian girl Dales woke up early. She will take her family along the highway to Sihanoukville, about 200 kilometers away, for the weekend. At 7 a.m. that day, the Jingang Expressway connecting Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, and Sihanoukville opened on time for trial operation. Outside the toll gate in Phnom Penh, vehicles have already lined up in a convoy more than 100 meters long. Dales excitedly waved the pass card and said that taking the spacious and smooth expressway to Westport for the first time felt like a dream.

There is a well-known proverb in Cambodia: Where there is a road, there is hope. For a long time, transportation infrastructure has restricted the development of Cambodia, especially the capital Phnom Penh and the largest deep-water seaport city Sihanoukville. Previously, many Cambodians had traveled from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville along the Cambodian National Highway 4 many times. It took 5 hours at the fastest, and 6 to 8 hours in case of bad weather or traffic accidents. After the trial operation of the Golden Port Expressway, it took only 1 hour and 40 minutes from Phnom Penh to the final destination of Westport. The Cambodian girl Dares exclaimed in disbelief.

Outside the checkpoint of the toll gate in Westport, the truck driver Suhan pointed out that it only took him 2 hours to drive from Phnom Penh Airport to Westport that day, while he used to spend a whole day on the road. Suhan said that the road surface of Jingang Expressway is of very high quality, there are almost no bumps, and he seldom needs to step on the brakes. The transportation time is shortened, and the drivers can take on more work.

"Hi, please wait a moment." 21-year-old Suleimian is a toll collector at the Phnom Penh toll booth on the Jingang Expressway. She skillfully motioned for a pickup truck in front of her to stop, and automatically recognized the license plate number and model through the monitoring of the bayonet. Wait for the information, and then hand the pass card of the corresponding model to the driver. "Thank you, please take the card, safe journey."

Su Leimian worked at the toll booth on the first day, but she didn't look like a novice at all. At the beginning of September 2022, Su Leimian applied to work at Jingang Expressway and received more than 20 days of professional training. Although it is the first day of opening to traffic, she is already very proficient in the business of the toll booth. Sleimian, from Anse Nuo District, Kandal Province, is very close to the toll booth. She said that the Jingang Expressway has given her good job opportunities. As more and more cars use the expressway in the future, she believes that her hometown will become more lively and prosperous.

Chun Suoya is a toll collector at the Kampong Speidong Toll Station. He said that the Jingang Expressway is very close to his home. When the expressway started construction in 2019, he had just entered university. Now that he has graduated from university, he will fulfill his wish in July 2022 Joined Jingang Expressway Company as a toll collector at the Kampong Spei station in his hometown, and received training in various aspects of the company's toll management and etiquette. I am very grateful to the Chinese company for the highway built for Cambodia, and also thank the Chinese company for providing him with an unusual job.

The Jingang Expressway connects five densely populated provinces and cities in Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kampong Speu, Koh Kong, and Sihanoukville, covering a quarter of Cambodia's population along the line, injecting vitality into local economic and social development. In Sihanoukville in early August 2022, many grocery stores, auto repair shops and restaurants had already gathered outside the toll gate of Jingang Expressway, which had not yet opened to traffic. In the same place, two months later, Sihanoukville became more lively, like a new market town. Since the Jingang Expressway is the first expressway in Cambodia, the local people need some time and guidance to adapt. Pat, a resident of Phnom Penh, brought his whole family to experience the expressway. He said that the expressway is flat and saves driving time. Rules, pay attention to driving safety. The Cambodian government and Chinese companies also have a lot of publicity in this regard, and the public needs to understand it.

According to Mo Kun, general manager of Jingang Expressway Company, after opening to traffic, the entire line of Jingang Expressway has 8 toll stations, 3 service areas, 1 parking area, and multiple supporting offices such as an operation management center, directly providing more than 2,000 local offices. employment position. During the high-speed construction period, more than 5,000 local employees were employed at most. In addition, some materials and equipment for the project were procured nearby, which promoted the development of a large number of supply chain enterprises. Itbouna, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport of Cambodia, said that the completion and opening of the Golden Port Expressway is of historic significance to Cambodia. It not only provides convenience for the people to travel, but is also expected to indirectly create tens of thousands of jobs and stimulate investment and consumption in the provinces along the route. demand, stimulating the economic development of the southwestern region of Cambodia and even the entire Cambodian economy.

Give a man a fish and teach a man to fish

On September 23, 2022, Prime Minister Hun Sen released a video on social platforms to promote the Jingang Expressway to the public, which received more than one million views within a day. Hun Sen said that he is very glad that Cambodia will soon have its own expressway, and the road traffic in Cambodia will continue to improve in the future. Many Cambodian netizens commented that they could only see such spectacular and beautiful highways overseas before, but now there are highways in Cambodia.

It is understood that during the construction process of the Jingang Expressway, it insisted on improving the road quality through testing and testing methods. After the completion of the expressway, it also left Cambodia with a central laboratory with the most advanced testing instruments, the most comprehensive testing items, and the highest degree of standardization. The laboratory has a total of 12 operating rooms, which can carry out physical and mechanical performance tests and chemical analysis of 201 parameters of 24 categories of road engineering. In addition, Jingang Expressway has also set up computer systems, closed-circuit television monitoring systems, information collection and release systems, etc. in accordance with the standards of Chinese expressways to ensure high efficiency in road management and maintenance.

Teach a man to fish and teach a man to fish. Zhou Yong, assistant to the general manager of CRBC and general manager of the Cambodian office, said that the successful construction and smooth operation of the Jingang Expressway means that Chinese technology, Chinese expressway service management concepts, and China’s training methods for expressway talents will remain in the Cambodia has benefited the local area for a long time.

At the beginning of the new year in 2023, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen successfully visited China, fulfilling his three-year agreement with Chinese leaders after his retrograde visit to China when the new crown epidemic broke out in China in early 2020. The friendly exchanges between China and Cambodia have a long history, which can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty in the early AD. The bilateral friendship has lasted for more than 2,000 years and experienced three peaks of friendly exchanges. During these three peaks of friendly exchanges, China and Cambodia not only carried out material and cultural exchanges, but also carried out spiritual and cultural exchanges, which further demonstrated the achievements of civilization exchanges and mutual learning.

2023 is the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. As an important country along the Belt and Road, Cambodia has achieved fruitful results in strategic alignment, infrastructure construction, and production capacity cooperation. In terms of strategic alignment, the Belt and Road Initiative and the Four Corners strategy have been efficiently aligned in areas such as agriculture, energy, and transportation; in terms of infrastructure construction, China has jointly implemented roads, bridges, water conservancy, and power transmission by providing Cambodia with two-excellent loans. For infrastructure projects, nearly 4,000 kilometers of roads were newly built or upgraded, and many bridges were built. In October 2022, the Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville expressway supported by China will be opened for trial operation. The expressway construction adopts Chinese design and Chinese standards, spanning 5 provinces, two-way four-lane, and the driving distance from the original 5 The multi-hour is shortened to less than 2 hours, and at the same time, it effectively stimulates domestic demand and promotes the development of local tourism, logistics, and industry. In terms of production capacity cooperation, the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone is a national economic cooperation zone between the governments of China and Cambodia, and it is also a landmark project for the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. It has attracted 170 enterprises and created nearly 30,000 jobs. A new pattern of mutual benefit and win-win industrial chain supply chain is being created. Buteng Village, which is adjacent to the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, has benefited from the rapid development of the special zone. Many villagers’ thatched houses have been converted into brick houses, and their families have bought motorcycles and cars. They call the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone the Golden Rice Bowl.

In short, the sound operation of the Jingang Expressway will lay the foundation for the opening of more expressways in Cambodia in the future. According to Sun Zhantuo, Cambodian Minister of State and Public Works and Transport, the Cambodian government is preparing to build the second expressway in the country, and has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Road and Bridge on the expressway from Phnom Penh to Bavet City, Svay Rieng Province. Editor/He Yuting