Japan plans to conduct a feasibility study on the development of a major industrial park at a site close to Sihanoukville Port, Cambodia's only seaport for international commerce, through official development assistance, government officials said April 29.
Tokyo plans to let the Japan International Cooperation Agency, a government-affiliated aid organization, launch the feasibility study during fiscal 1997, after it receives a formal request for such assistance from Phnom Penh, according to the officials. "Japan cannot provide ODA for the study without being formally requested by Cambodia to do so," one official said. "We expect to receive the request in the near future."
Sihanoukville Port, located about 200 km southwest of Phnom Penh, is widely believed to hold the key to Cambodia's economic development. The study will take at least 18 months and cost several hundred million yen, which will come from the ODA budget allocated to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the officials said.