Dara Sakor Seashore Resort
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Dara Sakor Resort and Airport was covered in a recent article in the Global Times (May 2022). Some info on attitudes between US / Cambodia / China and how it's affecting the site. There was one photo in the article of the site from above. It's an image of the planning map for the Dara Sakor project, Courtesy of Coastal City Development Group Co.

"The smearing of the BRI by the West did not happen today, it has always been there, and it is based on their political needs. With slandering used as a bargaining chip in asking prices locally, the US has deliberately damaged China's image in local people's hearts and has hindered the advancement of the project," Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The port and airport projects within the Dara Sakor integrated resort matches with local needs to improve people's livelihood, which will obviously enhance the country's logistics and transportation and promote the development of regional economy after completion, Xu said.

"We'll maintain and strengthen strategy on ecological civilization construction, unswervingly follow the path of ecological priority and green development, and continue to promote green, low-carbon development," the Coastal City executive noted.

Source: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1255001.shtml

Found this new video showing aerial views of the Dara Sakor project. Here's the video description from the uploader:

Spending 2 days inside the Dara Sakor project, we explore the development that are happening in this Koh Kong region.
The Union Road cutting through the Botum Sakor National Park
The Dara Sakor Airport
The Long Bay Casino hotel (the only one with some activity and construction still going on)
The Dara Sakor Resort & golf course
and the ghost casino & apartments which seem abandonned since 2020...

We get a full view of the resort, some abandoned and ongoing construction sites, and the airport which is under construction.

So what happened in October?

According to this report there was a conference held in Septemer 2021 where it was announced that the airport would be completed in October 2021 and begin testing on December 30th.

Representatives of the Dara Sakor International Airport construction firm confirmed the two dates during the meeting with the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) on Tuesday 21 September.

Covering an area of up to 4.5 hectares in Botum Sakor district, the US$350 million Dara Sakor International Airport project is being developed by the Chinese firm Tianjin Union Development Group (UDG).

Source: https://construction-property.com/dara-sakor-international-airport-to-begin-operation-by-late-2021/

The casino planned for the area is expected to be operational in 2022.

Hong Kong-listed Century Entertainment said the Dara Sakor casino in Cambodia had opened on Nov. 4th and its Victor Mind Global unit will begin operating two tables.

The company said the casino expects to be fully operational by February 2022. The final number of tables that will be assigned to its unit will be dependent on certain conditions in the framework agreement being fulfilled, it said.

Source: https://agbrief.com/news/cambodia/04/11/2021/century-unit-to-begin-table-games-at-dara-sakor-as-casino-opens/

The airport will also be operational at a later time in 2022. Flight trials will commence early next year.

“The airport will be ready to commence commercial operations in mid-2022 and the terminal building is capable of handling passengers movements of up to a half a million,” the firm added.

Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2207683/koh-kong-airport-set-for-flight-trials-early-next-year

So far it looks like the Dara Sakor Golf Hotel, Seaside Golf Course, and Dara Sakor Hotel are all operational. See photos below:






Source: https://www.golfasian.com/golf-courses/cambodia-golf-courses/sihanoukville/dara-sakor-golf-resort/

Comprising about 20% of Cambodia's coastline, the UDG development was billed as a luxury resort that would cost up to $3.8 billion. But after the initial construction of a hotel, surrounding golf courses and roads, the project has largely remained stalled, with the exception of its airport.

The company's grand vision of a casino city attracting millions of Chinese tourists is yet to materialize. Nor has there been progress on broader plans at the site for what has been called the "Cambodia-China Comprehensive Investment and Development Pilot Zone," which is to feature industrial parks, container terminals and the port.

The development has been listed as a "priority cooperation project" by Cambodia and China since 2016. And while it predates Chinese President Xi Jinping's announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative by five years, UDG has aggressively branded it a BRI project in its public materials.

Source:
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-China-tensions/Chinese-resort-developer-in-Cambodia-hit-with-US-sanctions

This is actually an operating resort:

A small hotel and three 18 hole golf courses are already open and a sales office opened in Phnom Penh on March 31rd, 2015.

At build-out, the resort is expected to come in at a cost of between $3.8-$5 billion. China's Union Group is spearheading the project, developing as much as 20% of Cambodia's coastline in the endeavor.

The development will cover at least 36,000 (139 square miles) of land in Botum Sakor and Kiri Sakor districts, including parts of the Botum Sakor National Park near the Gulf of Thailand. Concession of the land on a 99-year lease was made in April 2008. The Cambodian city nearest to the project is Sihanoukville.

The mega-complex will also have a port for cruise ships, an international airport, golf courses, apartment buildings, and hotels to provide entertainment and comfort to foreign tourists. Some reports put the size of the resort at “…half the size of Singapore.”

Source: https://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/casino/cambodia-dara-sakor-seashore-resort-casino?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_xKpArrvj.ZH2P6o0miYdhVEq811.U4_UlL23KTj3.H4-1635535313-0-gqNtZGzNApCjcnBszQhl

Status: under construction