A proposed US$1.7 billion canal linking Cambodia’s southern coast with its section of the Mekong River could include funding from China and would allow shipments and security patrols on the major waterway to bypass Vietnam, several analysts have told Radio Free Asia.

Prime Minister Hun Manet spoke about the 180 km-long (110 miles) project last month, denying reports that the government is planning to take a loan from Beijing to fund construction, which is slated to begin later this year and could take four years to complete.

“It will become a lifeline for our own nation and people, and will eventually improve our economic growth and distribution,” Hun Manet said at an inauguration ceremony for an unrelated project on Dec. 27. 

The canal would begin south of Phnom Penh, cross over the Tonle Bassac and continue to the Gulf of Thailand coast in Kep province. It would impact some 1.6 million Cambodians, according to a government report.

The project is being called the Funan-Techo Canal, and is partly named after Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia since 1985 before stepping down in August. “Techo” references an ancient Khmer warrior and is one of Hun Sen’s leadership honorifics.

“Funan” harkens back to an ancient regional empire that ruled over the Mekong Delta from the first to fifth centuries. The empire featured a canal system that linked the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand during a period when the shoreline was farther north. 

Environmental impact

The Cambodian government approved the canal, formally known as the Tonle Bassac Navigation and Logistics System, in May.

The canal could seriously change the environment and ecology of the lower Mekong River, according to Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia program director at the Washington-based Stimson Center, whose Mekong Dam Monitor records river levels, reservoir volume and precipitation across the river basin.

The Cambodian government report said the project would require the building of three waterway dams, 11 bridges, a 208-kilometer sidewalk and other infrastructure. It will be as wide as 100 meters (328 feet) and 80 meters (262 feet) deep in places.

It could also provide a route for Chinese security interests to travel up to Phnom Penh from the Gulf of Thailand and Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, where China has funded the construction of a deep-draft pier that can accommodate aircraft carriers, he said.

Two Chinese warships led a training program for the Cambodian Navy at the base in Sihanoukville province last month, satellite imagery shows. The base is about 100 km (60 miles) from Kep.

“I’m sure we’re not talking about aircraft carriers,” Eyler said. “But the kind of joint patrol boats that we see on the upper Mekong coming out of China could easily move through that canal.”

The canal would cut transport costs from US$223 per container to US$170 while expanding agricultural development, creating jobs at the Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh ports and “encouraging city development and urbanization,” the report said.

Cambodia has already begun work on expanding the port at Sihanoukville, the Khmer Times reported.

During an official visit to Beijing in October, Hun Manet signed an agreement for the state-owned China Bridge and Road Corporation to conduct a feasibility study on the canal project. 

“Samdech Techo already emphasized that this project is not something we would use credit from other countries,” Hun Manet said at the Dec. 27 inauguration ceremony, referring to his father. “A company that invests in this project will be responsible for seeking loan for spending on the overall construction.” 

He did not comment on whether a Chinese company would be awarded the project.

‘Vietnam is legitimately alarmed’

China and Cambodia have seen a rapid development of their relationship in recent years, with Beijing providing Phnom Penh with much needed financial assistance.

Chinese police and security forces already have a presence in Cambodia as they help address the issue of criminality among Chinese nationals in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, Eyler said.

He pointed to last month’s Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Forum in Beijing – also attended by Laos and Myanmar – where the main discussion about the Mekong River was about joint security operations. 

“So there is a motivation and an interest there to deepen the security presence. Is that something that could draw in other forms of waterborne security presence into Cambodia?” he asked.

“This is something that should concern Vietnam. Should concern Thailand. It should concern the region.”

The canal would also allow Cambodia to be less dependent on Vietnamese ports, said Sophal Ear, an associate professor of global political economy at Arizona State University. 

As a way of protecting its interests, Vietnam could bring up the project as a transboundary water issue at the Mekong River Commission, an inter-government agency that works with regional governments to manage river resources, or the International Court of Justice, he said.

“Vietnam is legitimately alarmed, though I can’t imagine the Mekong ecosystem is their primary concern,” Ear said.

The canal could affect the famous Tonle Sap reversal – a natural process that sustains Cambodia’s fisheries and Vietnam’s Mekong Delta agriculture, according to Pham Phan Long, president of the U.S.-based Viet Ecology Foundation.

Earlier in December, Hun Manet reassured his Vietnamese counterpart during a two-day official visit to Hanoi that the project wouldn’t have “any negative impacts on the flow of the Mekong or other rivers,” said Jean-Francois Tan, a delegate minister to Prime Minister Hun Manet in charge of foreign affairs and international cooperation.

“Cambodia has presented the results of a number of studies showing that there are no environmental impacts,” Tan told reporters on Dec. 13.

Vietnamese officials appeared to accept the prime minister’s explanation, CPP spokesman Sok Ey San told RFA.

“We do not hear any more complaints from Vietnam so far after the official explanation by the prime minister during his visit,” he said. “The ruling party, as well as the government, will go ahead with the plan. It is built within Cambodia sovereignty.” 

‘Dual use’

Many Vietnamese government officials and experts are studying whether the canal could be used by militaries, a Vietnam-based expert who wished to remain anonymous told RFA.

In other infrastructure projects around the world, China has ensured that ports and other facilities are “dual use” – or available for civilian and military interests, the expert said.

Military vessels could travel up the canal and then down the Mekong to the Vietnamese border close to Ho Chi Minh City, he said.

Asked whether the project will be constructed by a Chinese company, Sok Ey San said the government will decide after feasibility studies are completed.

Cambodia could seek the involvement of companies based in Japan or elsewhere to avoid any reliance on China that could affect Cambodia sovereignty, Finland-based political commentator Kim Sok said.

“It is necessary that Cambodia builds the Funan canal. But the most important thing is that Cambodia should use its own money in building it,” he said, referring to concerns that China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a debt trap for poorer countries.

RFA asked the Vietnamese and Chinese embassies in Phnom Penh for comment on the canal project but did not receive any response.

Wesley Holzer, the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, told RFA that the United States “is deeply invested in the conservation of the Mekong River and improving the lives of the millions of Cambodians and Southeast Asians who rely on the river’s natural resources.”

RFA was unable to reach Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona for comment about the canal project. Tan also could not be reached.

Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster. RFA Vietnamese contributed to this report.