Hun Sen announces $100 million stadium

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Cheang Sokha, Joe Curtin and H S Manjunath

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday took the wraps off the final design for the new national stadium – due to serve as the centrepiece of the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games – a reality a government official said was made possible with a $100 million donation from the Chinese government.

Hun Sen, speaking at the Peace Palace, also an-nounced a near doubling of the wages of national athletes, coaches and administrators.

During a state visit by Hun Sen to Beijing in May last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to fund the construction of the main stadium of the new multi-purpose sports complex on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in Prek Phnov, National Olympic Committee Secretary-General Vath Chamroeun told the Post.

The first phase of the project, which broke ground in 2013, is 60 per cent complete and is set to be finished next year.

The 60,000-seat main stadium, which is estimated to cost about $100 million and will be built by a Chinese construction firm, will be completed in the next four to five years with a Chinese grant covering the entire project, Chamroeun said.

Late last year, a technical team from China came to the Kingdom to put together plans for the main stadium, coming up with two designs. A Cambodian architect submitted a design and a Thai architect submitted two. A committee whittled the five plans down to two for the premier’s consideration, according to Chamrouen.

In choosing the winning design, Hun Sen noted its resemblance to a traditional Chinese ship, saying he considered it a symbol of Cambodia’s friendship with the emerging global power, Chamrouen said, adding that safety elements such as wide concourses to ease crowd congestion were also taken into account.

A multipurpose arena, the Prek Phnov Stadium will house an Olympic swimming pool, an outdoor football pitch, a running track, tennis courts and dormitories for athletes.

While wishing the Kingdom’s medal hopefuls success as the Cambodian contingent prepares for the SEA Games in Singapore beginning on June 5, Hun Sen also announced attended by top sports administrators and team members, that the salaries and monthly food allowance of all national coaches and athletes would be increased by nearly 50 per cent with immediate effect, as well as a cent-per-cent increase in the pay of the civil administrative staff at the national training centre.

The increase will benefit as many as 300 national athletes and coaches, making it one of the biggest such hikes in the Kingdom’s sports sphere for a long time.

“Better pay leads to better living conditions and better training, and eventually to better results. These highly desirable increases will no doubt motivate our athletes and coaches to perform at their best, and the NOCC is so thankful to the prime minister for this grand gesture,” Chamroeun said yesterday.

“More importantly, these increases will bring Cambodian coaches and athletes on par with some of the other countries in the region,” he said.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national

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PM denies revealing price tag for stadium

Wed, 20 May 2015

Cheang Sokha

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday denied a senior sport official’s $100 million cost estimate for a new national stadium, although he confirmed it will be China footing the bill.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony on Koh Pich, the premier said that he had approved the building’s design but distanced himself from the nine-figure tally for its completion.

“I did not say China gave $100 million to build this stadium; where did The Phnom Penh Post get this from? I did not say it,” he told more than a thousand graduating students. “I just approved a design from the [two designs presented] for approval.”

‘Satisfied’
While Hun Sen did not address the stadium’s cost on Monday, National Olympic Committee secretary-general Vath Chamroeun pegged it at $100 million on the same day in a follow-up interview with the Post.

Though he insisted that the final estimate had yet to be tallied, Hun Sen yesterday confirmed the source of its funding.

“My negotiation is that China will give it, but how much it will cost has not been estimated,” he said. “Our Chinese friends just say that, whatever the cost, they will cover all, and Cambodia and Prime Minister Hun Sen are satisfied with that.”

The Morokot Decho stadium, which is located on the outskirts of the capital and intended to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Southeast Asia Games in 2023, saw ground broken in April 2013, with Hun Sen in attendance.

Speaking to the Post yesterday, Chamrouen still insisted that the Cambodian technical team’s evaluation of the main stadium’s construction cost would be about $100 million.

It’s not a number he feels will be a problem for the Chinese.

“China doesn’t care how much it costs, but we estimated it would cost about $100 million for the construction of this main stadium alone,” Chamroeun said.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national