Work forges ahead on Cambodia's new Phnom Penh airport despite COVID-19 threat: PM

Work on the 1.5-billion-U.S. dollar new Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia has been forging ahead despite an economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Monday. Started in 2018, the construction of the airport in the first phase has been 30 percent completed so far and will be finished by 2023, he said.

"Although the COVID-19 has adversely affected our tourism and industrial sectors, it cannot hinder our process of infrastructure development," Hun Sen said during a visit to the construction site of the airport in Kandal province, about 20 km south of capital Phnom Penh.

"The new airport will be capable of handling 13 million passengers a year in the first phase, 30 million passengers in the second phase in 2030, and up to 50 million passengers in 2050 in the third phase," he said.