Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, and Bu Jianguo, Ambassador of China to Cambodia, attended the Acceptance for Operation Ceremony, i.e., Power Generation Ceremony.

Acceptance for Operation Ceremony, i.e., Power Generation Ceremony for Tatay Hydropower Project [Photo by Jiang Jianjun]

On 23 December, 2015, Sino-Cambodian friendship yielded fruitful results again. The acceptance and operation conference and power generation ceremony for Cambodian Tatay Hydropower Project was held in Koh Kong Province. Present in the ceremony were Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, Bu Jianguo, Ambassador of China to Cambodia, respresentative of CGGC No.1 Engineering Company, local representatives of commons, monks, and representatives of the Employer and the Contractors from China.

Premier Hun Sen spoke highly of Hydropower projects invested and constructed by Chinese enterprises and expressed that Tatay and other hydropower stations enhanced Cambodia's capacity of independent power supply, improved guarantee on its national power consumption, and made huge contribution to the tariff reduction of Cambodia, promoting employment, improving living standard of local people and eliminating poverty. Premier Hun Sen expected further active participation of Chinese firms in Cambodia's power grid construction. After the ceremony, Premier Hun Sen, Ambassador Bu Jianguo and other guests left for the power generation plant to witness the inauguration of the hydropower station.

Bu spoke highly of Sino-Cambodian friendly relations and practical bilateral partnerships in all aspects and said that the "Belt & Road" initiative would offer new opportunities for both of them to deepen all-around cooperation. He also said that China was expected to continue enhancing policy communication with Cambodia and realize strategic links in an attempt to strive for harvest as soon as possible and create a new stage of bilateral friendly cooperation.

CGGC No. 1 Company has undertaken construction of main and auxiliary dams, diversion tunnel and plant. Till the end of November 2015, the accumulated output accomplished by its Project Management Department has accounted for 96.73% of total contract amount. Its major workloads completed include 7 million m3 of earthwork in open excavation and 900,000 m3 of stonework in hole excavation. The construction quality of its works is overall controlled and all safety and eco-friendly indicators are under control, guaranteeing successful completion of all construction.

Located across Tatay River in Koh Kong Province, the Tatay Hydropower Station is about 300 km to the west of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. In the power station, 3 units are installed with single capacity of 82 MW and total installed capacity of 246 MW. The power generated is planned to make up for Cambodian national major power grid by electric transmission and transformation project under construction at the same time. The development and construction of the power station is expected to alleviate the tension of power supply in the Kingdom of Cambodia, assist in its transition from resource superiority to economic superiority and boost rapid economic growth.