The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) approved 37 projects – 35 are new projects and two are production expansions of the existing companies in February – with a sum of investment capital worth nearly $1.2 billion, creating about 38,000 job opportunities for locals.

According to the CDC data released Tuesday, 58.41 percent of the total projects came from domestic entrepreneurs, 33.19 percent from Chinese businessmen, 4.31 percent from Singaporean companies and only 4.09 percent belonged to Vietnamese.

The data further revealed that the industry sector received 81 percent of the total investment projects, and the project to build hard infrastructure stood at 11 percent while agriculture and agro-industry got only 8 percent.

Although the industry sectors received more projects than others that does not mean it absorbed the highest investment budget. In fact, the infrastructure sector saw the most investment instead, receiving $687.5 million, the industry sector got 456.9 million, and the agriculture & agro-industry sectors got the least, 54.2 million.

The most prominent projects in February are the construction of Stung Meteuk Hydropower with a capacity of 150 megawatts under a build-operate-transfer contract, a model used to finance large projects developed through public-private partnerships.

The hydropower project worth $440 million which creates 220 jobs is constructing along the Meteuk River, a small river running across Mondul Seima district, Koh Kong province, read the report.

The second largest project is the construction of Kampong Chhnang Multi-Purpose Port and Logistics Centre in Keang Tasok village, Kampong Hao commune, Kampong Leaeng district – with an investment budget of $108 million, likely to produce jobs for 115 local people.

The third biggest project is to establish and operate a data centre in the heart of the country through an investment budget of $107 million and consider at least 54 job opportunities, specifically based in village number one of Sangkat Srah Chak, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh city.

Finally, there is a plan to build another data centre in Sangkat Toul Sangke One, Khan Russey Keo, Phnom Penh with an investment of $30 million while creating a minimum of 43 jobs for Cambodians.

Based on the CDC report, there is one prominent project invested in a special economic zone (SEZ) in Svay Rieng province which aims at expanding the production chain of a car ties company, worth approximately $212 million as it can produce up to 655 jobs.

The last part of the data reported that among 37 investment projects, 11 are in Svay Rieng province, eight in Kampong Spur province, five in Phnom Penh city, three in Takeo province, two each in Kandal and Strung Treng provinces, while provinces like Preah Sihanouk, Kampong Chhang, Kos Kong, Preah Vihear, Kampot and Kampong Cham received one each.

Breaking down in detail, only 13 projects are invested in the SEZ area while the other 24 investment projects are invested countrywide.

• Tags: CDC, investment projects