The Royal Government yesterday gave its in-principle approval to designate nearly 2,000 hectares of land in Lumphat District, Ratanakiri province, for the development of a new airport.
The project, stated to proceed through a public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism, a model the government has increasingly adopted for major infrastructure initiatives, will be built on 1,905 hectares of land in Thmey Village, Chey Odom Commune, according to an Office of the Council of Ministers’ directive to the Minister of Economy and Finance and the Minister in charge of the Secretariat of State for Civil Aviation published on Wednesday.
Ratanakiri provincial authorities and stakeholders held a virtual meeting via video conference on September 2 to discuss the progress and mechanism for the development of the Ratanakiri airport project.
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Tek Saly, Secretary of State of the Secretariat of Civil Aviation, with the participation of authorities and representatives of many relevant departments and units in the province.
In the meeting, officials of the Ratanakiri provincial administration stressed high hopes for the new infrastructure development in the province for local economic development.
“Residents of all ethnicities in Ratanakiri province hope that the project will take shape soon to attract investors and increase tourism, as well as provide job opportunities for residents and informal businesses such as taxi drivers, motorbike taxi drivers, and tricycle drivers,” they said in a statement issued upon the meeting.
This is the first step of the project in designating the land for strategic development plans. Whether or not the airport can be built depends on the potential of the province’s economy, according to SSCA.
Cambodia is developing new domestic airports as part of its national infrastructure master plan, which was detailed in a report by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport in 2024.
One significant domestic project is the planned Mondulkiri airport, which is a priority given its potential as a new economic and tourism hub in the country’s northeastern region.
Currently, Cambodia has three international airports and a domestic airport in Koh Kong province.
Cambodia received 4.08 million air travellers in the first seven months of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 16 percent, according to a report from the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA).
