PM Hun Manet Opens 198km National Road 10, Hails Win-Win Legacy

PHNOM PENH — Oct. 1, 2026: Prime Minister Hun Manet officially inaugurated National Road No. 10, a 198.51-kilometre route running from Samlot in Battambang province through Veal Veng in Pursat province to Khemarak Phoumin city in Koh Kong province, describing the new road as proof that a former battlefield can become a corridor of development.

The ceremony was held on Oct. 1, 2026, under a cooperation financing framework from the Government of the People's Republic of China and the national budget. The Prime Minister said Pursat was once a civil war zone but has advanced rapidly under the Win-Win Policy of former Prime Minister Hun Sen, now President of the Senate.

He noted that National Road No. 55, formerly No. 56, saw fierce fighting from 1979 into the 1990s, and has since become a developed route. He called the construction of National Road No. 10 the correct decision by Hun Sen, connecting Cambodia's northwest to the southwestern coast.

Construction began in 2020 under Hun Sen and then-Chinese Ambassador Wang Wentian. Hun Manet thanked the people and Government of China for helping build the road and for supporting Cambodia's development across all sectors, and expressed gratitude to Chinese leaders for pledging continued grant aid and concessional loans, promoting investment and economic cooperation, and aligning the Belt and Road Initiative with the Pentagonal Strategy to strengthen the Cambodia-China Diamond Cooperation partnership and the building of a high-quality, high-level, high-standard Cambodia-China community with a shared future.

He said National Road No. 10 is built as a DBST Highway Grade III and reinforced concrete road with two lanes in each direction. It includes Cambodia's highest bridge, standing 90 metres tall and funded with more than US$25 million from the national budget, named "Techo Peace Bamboo Bridge" (ស្ពានតេជោសន្តិភាពឫស្សីជ្រុំ) in gratitude for Samdech Techo Hun Sen's role in unifying the nation and leading the country's development.

The Prime Minister said the project will deliver high economic benefits by cutting travel time and transport costs along the northwestern corridor, boosting tourism and creating opportunities. The road reduces transport distances by about 306 kilometres from Battambang to Koh Kong, about 230 kilometres from Pursat to Koh Kong, and about 372 kilometres from Pailin to Koh Kong — savings that translate into lower costs for goods and travel. Pursat residents heading to Kampong Som, he said, no longer need to pass through Phnom Penh, but can connect via Road 48 to National Road No. 4 and the Phnom Penh-Kampong Som Expressway.

Reported by The Khmer Today