Cambodia PM hails 'historic project' linking Mekong River to sea

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet on Monday launched a controversial $1.7 billion canal project that aims to provide a new link from the Mekong River to the sea. At a launch event in Prek Takeo, southeast of the capital Phnom Penh, Manet called the 180-kilometre project "historic".

The Funan Techo canal will run from a spot on the Mekong River, about an hour's drive southeast of Phnom Penh, to the sea in the Gulf of Thailand and is due to be completed in 2028. Around a third of cargo coming to and from Cambodia uses Vietnamese ports via the Mekong, but authorities hope this number will fall to around 10 percent once the canal is completed.