Siem Reap is on the cusp of one the largest renewals in its modern history led by a massive government works program, namely the “38 Road Project” and even larger foreign investment developments.
The large scale private developments, mostly led by foreign capital inflow, including
- Angkor Lake of Wonder – (or Naga World Siem Reap) – 75ha site – a $USD350m development inc. Siem Reap China Town with bars, shopping, a water theme park, indoor hi-tech theme parks, a canal, and high-end hotels. Completion expected 2025.
- Wildlife Park and Aquarium – 100ha site – $USD70m investment from a combined Cambodia, Japan, and the United States-led project with phase 1 expected to be opened by mid-2021.
- The new Siem Reap International Airport project – 700ha site – an $880m Chinese led investment that is expected to be completed in 2023.
- a new Siem Reap city, Grand Siem Reap – connecting with the new airport. Still in planning.
- Siem Reap Tourism Development Master Plan – Still in planning with 20 possible major projects being assessed.
- Completion of the Koulen Central Mall & Hotel
- Aeon Mall Siem Reap – speculation – located near to Angkor Lake of Wonder
Map showing Naga World, Aeon Mall, Bakong Village development, new Airport & Airport New Town, and Angkor Wildlife.
As the city navigates its way through the immense challenges that 2020 has bought, they are not wasting any time by capitalising on the break in tourists as an opportunity rather and a chance to initiate a much-needed renewal of public infrastructure while creating jobs and keeping the economy ticking over.
Those public works programs started with a long waited renewal of the popular Sok San Road which saw the removal of shanty and ad hoc constructions on public land to lay a new smooth and wider road. At the same time, other roads also went through the same process along with the Sivutha Blvd upgrade announcement followed by the larger and central government-funded “38 Roads Project”.
38 Roads Project
The project will cover 38 roads (108.74 km – mostly renewal with some new), rehabilitate the Siem Reap River, and upgrade sewage, CCTV, drainage, sidewalks, and public spaces. If the artist’s renditions are true to the final outcome, then, Siem Reap is in for major transformation and modernisation.
Artists Impressions of Urban mixed-use areas
Inc footpaths, bike paths, and parallel parking
Artists Impressions of Siem Reap River rehabilitation
Urban Roads and Areas included in the 38 Roads Project
Note: the map is laying on its side 🙂 The left-hand edge is north, note the hotel names to get your bearings.
Sivutha Blvd upgrade
Outer Urban Roads in Siem Reap 38 Roads Project
Other works
To be honest there is a load of construction activity already taking place with local property owners taking advantage of the downtime to redevelop frontages and entire sites. It’s hard to find a street without some construction activity taking place.
Renovation of Angkor Wat Front Area
The entry to Angkor Wat has a completely new look with old shanty stalls removed and replaced with gardens, new stall areas, large car parks, and an overhaul of the esplanade leading to the temple.
Other Angkor Works
Looking around there’s lots of ongoing restoration work, too numerous to mention, and lots of road improvements along with a beautiful new biking trail that leads around the temples and through natural jungle areas. The old Angkor Spice Garden site is being redeveloped too. More to come on that topic.
What to expect?
For locals, particularly business owners, it instills a lot of hope when large-scale investments on the way giving good reason to hold on, along with providing a lot of much-needed jobs and economic activity in general.
There’s always a downside before the upside, so there’ll also be power outages, loads of dust, impassable roads, noise, and trucks going in every direction for the next twelve months. Much like Sihanoukville has experienced for the last couple of years to a lesser degree.
To zoom out a little further, and it can be seen the Siem Reap is on the cusp of quite a large socio-economic shift away from travel and into the support of construction-related activity in the near term, fast movers will probably do well. So will those who collect assets for the likely boom in the years that follow.
Activity breeds activity and Siem Reap will become a hot topic on the Chinese mainland and private money will follow the Belt and Road investments being made here. Speculative, but I can’t help but feel SR is also on the cusp of a large swathe of worker migration followed by tourism and investment migration post-2021 likely followed by a boom in travel as the world, hopefully, sheds the shackles of the pandemic.
I am also quite wondrous about the adjustment to parallel parking, something that’s never been seen before locally, all while being watched on the new CCTV system 🙂