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| Hun Sen looks at development photos during an inauguration ceremony at the Sokha Hotel on Chroy Changvar peninsula yesterday morning. Heng Chivoan |
After more than six years of construction, the Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel and Residence officially opened its doors to the public yesterday, with Prime Minister Hun Sen on hand to inaugurate the city’s newest hotel.
Speaking at the launch, Hun Sen said the Sokha Hotel will boost the tourism sector in Cambodia and cater to luxury travellers. He added that the hotel, the fourth of the Sokha brand, will help Cambodia host regional and international meetings in the future, possibly the Asia-Europe Meeting.
“Soon, some diplomatic people may come to stay here. Some diplomatic people are likely to come to live, as it has a fresh atmosphere with no air pollution,” Hun Sen said.
The 18-storey Sokha Hotel is located on the Chroy Changvar peninsula, opposite the Royal Palace, and cost $120 million, not including land costs. Taking six years to build, the hotel is a subsidiary of the Sokimex Investment Group, and owned by tycoon Sok Kong.
Luu Meng, president of the Cambodia Hotel Association, welcomed the new establishment, saying that a new service focusing on luxury hospitality will provide more options for foreign travellers and should increase the quality of existing hotels in the Kingdom.
According to Meng, Cambodia currently has about 500 hotels, but only around 30 hotels have 100 or more rooms and six to seven of them follow international standards. He added that the Sokha should not have a negative effect on other hotels, but only fill in a gap for high-end accomadations.
“The demand of hight-class hotel services in Cambodia is on an increasing trend, so I don’t think it has any effect to the exist operators as they are serving to complement each other,” he said.
Ang Kim Eang, president of the Cambodia Association of Travels Agent, said once foreign tourists get to know about the service at the Sokha, the new hotel will help boost the number of luxury visitors to Cambodia.
“Once we have good products and service, we be able to sell it better as the demand is already in the market,” he said. “We have more and more options for foreign visitors so that we can serve them better in any market segment.”
According the company news release, the hotel has a total of 744 rooms, including 195 condos, manned by 800 staff. The hotel has a large meeting hall for 3,000 people and two spots for helicopters on the rooftop.
Following a tour of the site last March, Svey Vuthy, chief legal and corporate affairs officer of Sokimex, said the hotel may consider a casino licence in the future, if they can get it.
NagaWorld is currently Phnom Penh’s only casino, with a near monopoly status until 2035.
The hotel also planned to start a ferry service from behind the Cambodiana Hotel, Vuthy said last march, from the Daun Penh district riverside to the Chroy Changvar peninsula, to avoid traffic congestion.
3 comments:
Begin of Drgunzet's comment.
"The 18-storey Sokha Hotel is located on the Chroy Changvar peninsula, opposite the Royal Palace, and cost $120 million."
Such hotel only generates a few hundred jobs for the local Cambodians. If the same $120 million was invested to build garment factories, it can generate 60,000 jobs.
Currently in Vietnam, there are a couple dozen big garment complex going up ranging from 10 million to 300 millions US dollars. About half of these are Vietnamese own investors.
In 2015, Vietnam starts to have labor shortage again. More people will move from rural to cities to work in these factories. Oh, Vietnam is smart. They build these new factories in the smaller cities, not in the big cities.
There is a forum, Skyscraper cities which accumulate pictures from all over the world based by cities. You folks should check out Vietnamese cities and see how rapidly they are building their cities. Compare to Cambodian cities, Vietnamese cities are clearly superior.
Vietnam's cities:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=588
And, Cambodia's cities:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2517
-Drgunzet-
Make sure to keep your shitnamese in that superior of your shitnam and not let them come to seek works in Cambodia. While you are at it, why not build factories that produce a lot of dog-shit for the shitnamese consumption ? Good luck with your wet dreams, shitnamese.
Sincerely,
STUPID youn...
Begin of Drgunzet's comment.
Thailand was Japan's ally during World War II, so it's logical for Japan to invest in Thailand. Now a day, Thailand is inching toward China, Japan's arch-rival.
Japan is shifting productions, investment toward Vietnam from Thailand. It is happening. Vietnam is Japan's new buddy. So...just watch in the next few years, a huge boom in Vietnam is already happening.
Right now in Vietnam, they have shortage in low, mid, high-level personnel. Jobs are booming in Vietnam. In the high-level personnel, qualified Vietnamese are being poached between companies with higher pay and bonus.
I don't see how Cambodia can compete with Vietnam in the next 100 years.
Really, look at last year disastrous national exam. The rampant cheat was stopped and revealed horrible results. The entire nation could only produced 12 students with grade A!!!
Oh my God, in Vietnam, every years they easily produce tens of thousand grade A students. In one competition, all candidates achieved perfect scores, not just A, PERFECT SCORES.
-Drgunzet-
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