Cambodia Iron and Steel Mining Industry Group has contracted the China Railway Group to build a railway to link a steel facility in northern Preah Vihear province to a port at the southern commercial island of Koh Kong, the company's chairman said on Wednesday.

The rail link and port would cost $9.6 billion and the steel plant $1.6 billion.

The deal is the latest sign of China expanding its footprint in the frontier economies of a booming Southeast Asia as the United States vies for influence in the region.

Loans and investment have won China some useful political allies in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is set to become an integrated trade community by 2016.

All three projects in Cambodia would start this year and take up to four years to complete, chairman Zhang Chuan Li said.

" There is an important demand for transport of mined materials for export to China and to the world," Zhang told Reuters.

Cambodia Iron and Steel is a Chinese firm based in Phnom Penh and established in 2006.

The agreement was made on Monday and came three days after Sinomach China Perfect Machinery Industry Corp and Cambodian Petrochemical Company announced they would jointly build a $2.3 billion oil refinery, Cambodia's first, capable of processing 5 million tonnes of crude a year.

Chinese companies are also set to build a $7 billion, 400 km high-speed rail link through neighbouring Laos and are trying to win contracts to build new lines in Thailand.

" It must be the largest ever project in Cambodia," said Brimble, who has been involved in the ADB's rehabilitation work on 650 km of disused railway lines in Cambodia. " Perhaps it's easier to build a new one. Let's wait and see." (Editing by Martin Petty)

 

 

WA.. Midas 2013 contract TOO MANY till mad.. i wonder they can manage so many ORDER flowing to them anot.. i guess thailand, LAO and now cambodia all plan HIGH SPEED RAIL.. midas HUAT!!!