Sihanoukville News

 Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville (Khmer: ក្រុងព្រះសីហនុ, Krong Preah Sihanouk), also known as 'Kompong Som' (Khmer: កំពង់សោម), is a coastal city in Cambodia and the capital city of Sihanoukville province, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at the Gulf of Thailand. The city is flanked by an almost uninterrupted string of beaches along its entire coastline and coastal marshlands bordering the Ream National Park in the East. A number of thinly inhabited islands - under Sihanoukville's administration are in the city's proximity, where in recent years moderate development has helped to attract a sizable portion of Asia's individual travelers, young students and back-packers.

The city, which was named in honor of former king Norodom Sihanouk, had a population of around 89.800 people and approximately 66.700 in its urban center in the year 2008.[2] Sihanoukville city encompasses the greater part of four of the five communes (Sangkats) of Sihanoukville provinces' Mittakpheap District.

This rather young city has evolved parallel to the construction of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which commenced in June 1955, as the country's gateway to direct and unrestricted international sea trade. The only deep water port in Cambodia includes a mineral Oil terminal and a transport logistics facility.[4] As a consequence, the city grew to become a leading national center of trade, commerce, transport and process manufacturing.

Sihanoukville's many beaches and nearby islands make it Cambodia's premier Seaside resort with steadily rising numbers of national visitors and international tourists over the course of the last two decades.As a result of its economic diversity, the region's natural beauty and the considerable recreational potential, a constantly increasing number of seasonal and permanent foreign residents make Sihanoukville one of the culturally most varied and dynamic population centers in Cambodia.

Despite being the country’s premier sea side destination, the town and its infrastructure remain after decades of war and upheaval very much disjointed and architecturally unimpressive. Infrastructure problems persist, in particular related to water - and power supply, international standard health facilities remain limited.

As the tourism sector is by 2014 still insignificant in comparison with neighboring Thailand, Sihanoukville's future will largely be defined by the authorities' capability of a successfully balanced management in order to protect and conserve natural resources on the one hand and the necessities of island and - urban development, increasing visitor numbers, expanding infrastructure, the industrial sector and population growth on the other.

History

In post-Angkorian sources, such as the Cambodian Chronicles, the coastal region appears in records starting from the seventeenth century.
 
Classical Period (before 1700)
Prior to the ports' and city's foundation works of 1955, no recorded settlement on the peninsula existed that was larger than a traditional trade and/or - fishing community. During the many centuries of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian history – from Funan to Chenla and during the Khmer Empire, regional trade was centered at O Keo (Vietnamese: Óc Eo) in the Mekong Delta, now the province of Rạch Giá in Vietnam. The township of Prei Nokor (Saigon) was a commercial center of the Khmer Empire.
 
Early Modern Period (around 1700 - 1863)
From the end of the seventeenth century, Cambodia lost control of the Mekong River route as Vietnamese power expanded into the lower Mekong. A Cambodian king of the late eighteenth century, Outey-Reachea III allied with a Chinese pirate, Mac-Thien-Tu, who had established an autonomous polity based in Ha Tien and controlled the maritime network on the eastern part of the Gulf of Thailand. Ha Tien was located at a point where a river linking to the Bassac River flows into the Gulf of Thailand. Landlocked Cambodia tried to keep its access to maritime trade through Ha Tien. Alexander Hamilton, who traveled on the Gulf of Thailand in 1720, wrote that two ports, Kompong Som and (Banteay Meas, later Ha Tien) belonged to Cambodia, and Cochin-China was divided from Cambodia by a river of three leagues broad. King Ang Duong constructed a road from his capital of Udong to Kampot, and opened Kampot as the only international seaport of Cambodia. The traveling time between Udong and Kampot was eight days by oxcart and four days by elephants. French Résident Adhemard Leclère wrote: "...Until 1840s, the Vietnamese governed Kampot and Péam, but Kompong Som belonged to Cambodia. The Vietnamese constructed a road from Ha Tien to Svai village - on the border with Kompong-Som - via Kampot.

The British Empire followed a distinct policy by the 1850-ies, seeking to consolidate its influence. Eye witness reports give rare insights, as Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston's agent John Crawfurd reports: "Cambodia was...the Keystone of our policy in these countries, - the King of that ancient Kingdom is ready to throw himself under the protection of any European nation...The Vietnamese were interfering with the trade at Kampot, and this would be the basis of an approach..." Palmerston concluded: "The trade at Kampot - one of the few remaining ports, could never be considerable, in consequence of the main entrance to the country, the Mekong, with all its feeders flowing into the Sea through the territory of Cochin China The country, too, had been devastated by recent Siam - Vietnam wars. Thus, without the aid of Great Britain, Kampot or any other port in Cambodia, can never become a commercial Emporium." Crawfurd later wrote: "The Cambodians... sought to use intervals of peace in the Siam - Vietnam wars to develop intercourse with outside nations. The trade at Kampot which they sought to foster was imperiled by pirates. Here is a point where the wedge might be inserted, that would open the interior of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula to British Commerce, as the great River of the Cambodians traverses its entire length and even affords communication into the heart of Siam.
 
French Rule (1863 - 1954)
Main article: French Protectorate of Cambodia
French civil servant Auguste Pavie (center)
and Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis in 1893
with Cambodian interpreters.
Under French rule Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia became a single administrative and economic unit. The coastal region Circonscription Résidentielle with Kampot as its capital contained the Arrondissements of Kampot, Kompong Som, Trang and Kong-Pisey. The establishment of another international trading center near the existing city of Saigon was not considered necessary. Focus remained the Mekong, and the idea to establish an alternative route to Chinese and Thai internal markets along an uninterrupted navigable waterway from the Red River to the Mekong Delta.
Insurrection

An insurrection that took place from 1885 to 1887 further discouraged French ambition. It started in Kampot and quickly spread to Veal Rinh, Kampong Seila, and Kompong Som, where the insurgents were lead by a Chinese pirate named Quan-Khiem. He managed to control the northern part of Preah Sihanouk for some time until he - an old man - was arrested by Preah Sihanouk's governor.

The most notable infrastructural improvements of this period were the construction of Route Coloniale No.17, later renamed National Road No.3 and the national railway system, although work on the "Southern Line" - from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville - only began in 1960.
 
After Independence (since 1954)
The city's and province's alternative name Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was adopted from the local indigenous community. After the dissolution of French Indochina in 1954, it became apparent that the steadily tightening control of the Mekong Delta by Vietnam required a solution to gain unrestricted access to the seas. Plans were made to construct an entirely new deep-water port. Kompong Saom (Kampong Som) was selected for water depth and ease of access. In August 1955, a French/Cambodian construction team cut a base camp into the unoccupied jungle in the area that is now known as Hawaii Beach. Funds for construction of the port came from France and the road was financed by the USA.

During the Vietnam War the port became an intensive military facility on both sides, in the service of National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam and after 1970, under the government of Lon Nol, in the service of the United States.

The port was the last place to be evacuated by the US Army, only days before Khmer Rouge guerrillas took control of the government in April 1975. The events surrounding the taking of the US container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew on 12 May by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent rescue operation by US Marines played out on the waters of Koh Tang off the coast of Sihanoukville. During the two days of action, the US commenced air strikes on targets on the mainland of Sihanoukville including the port, the Ream Naval Base, an airfield, the railroad yard and the petroleum refinery in addition to strikes and naval gun fire on several islands.

After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 and the subsequent opening of the economy, the port of Sihanoukville resumed its importance in the development and recovery of the country. With the further opening of new markets in 1999, the city regained its role in the economic growth of Cambodia.

In 1993, the Ream National Park was established per royal decree of former King Sihanouk.

The Sihanoukville Municipality was elevated to a regular province on 22 December 2008 after King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal Decree converting the municipalities of Kep, Pailin and Sihanoukville into provinces.

On 26 May 2011 Preah Sihanouk area joined the Paris-based club Les Plus Belles Baies Du Monde (The most Beautiful Bays in the World). The organisation officially accepts the Bay of Cambodia as one of its members at the 7th General Assembly.