Chinese Property Companies Leaving Sihanoukville, Cambodia Due to Covid-19 Pandemic: Hundreds of Projects Halted

CNN Indonesia

Tuesday, 16 April 2024 07:50 WIB

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —

Company property source China came to leave the coastal city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, hundreds of projects are currently on hold in the area.

One of the stalled projects is a building standing on a piece of land owned by a 51-year-old primary school teacher named Pan Sombo.

“This is absolutely unbelievable,” said Pan Sombo, looking at the new multi-storey frame building, reported from Nikkei Asia.

Pan said Chinese investors first submitted a proposal to build a 10-story apartment building in 2019, just as Cambodia was experiencing a real estate boom. The investor wants to use a vacant land of 750 square meters Pan.

The investor promised that ​​the building would be completed in 2021 and would generate about U$ 5 thousand or about IDR 75 million per month from land use taxes. Pan then agreed to the project.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the investor returned to China and said he could not return to Cambodia. That was the last news the teacher heard from the investor.

The Pan Sombo building is not the only abandoned building in Sihanoukville. According to the city government, there are about 360 buildings that have not been completed and about 170 other buildings that have been completed but are still empty.

In addition, Sihanoukville became a fast-growing city in the mid-2010s due to remittances from China. Cambodia’s quest for economic growth found a way forward with China’s cross-border Belt and Road Initiative.

Cambodian developer Prince Real Estate Group started a series of construction projects, including luxury hotels and shopping malls. Sihanoukville is even called the second Macau because dozens of casinos have sprung up.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit which dealt a huge blow to the country. Last year, Cambodia only attracted about 550,000 Chinese tourists, down 77 percent from 2019. Then, only 15,754 passengers landed at Sihanoukville International Airport last year, down 98 percent hundred from 2019.

Chinese investors are pouring money into neighboring Asian countries to make them more connected to Beijing’s economy. Cambodia is not the only example.

The debt crisis at Chinese property giant Country Garden Holdings has spilled over to Malaysia, where development is underway mixed use worth US $ 100 billion or about Rp 1,600 trillion in Johor in uncertainty.

(net/sfr)