From various records, essential facts about the Kingdom have been compiled to enable the officers and employees of APA member ports to know more about the new member of the APA family.

The Kingdom of Cambodia is situated in Southeastern Asia and is geographically linked to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Like its neighbors, it has two seasons, i.e. wet and dry. A constitutional monarch established in September 1993 defines the form of government of the Kingdom with the hereditary king as the head of the state and who, in turn, appoints the Prime Minister. The present King and Prime Minister are His Excellencies, Norodom Sihanouk and Hun Sen, respectively. The Kingdom’s total land area is 69,884 square miles populated by 12,755,000 ethnically homogenous people, 90% of whom are Khmer and the rest a combination of Cham, Vietnamese and Chinese. The prevailing literacy rate is 65% and the dominant religion of 95 of the people is Therabada Buddhist. The official languages of the Cambodians are Khmer, French and English. As of 2002, the GNP per capita is 300 (Purchasing Parity, US$).

The core facilities of the PAS were built in 1954 and have been in the service since 1961. The first jetty with a length of 290 meters and width of 28 meters was constructed to accommodate 4 vessels of average size and depth of 8.5 meters. This, including two warehouses with a total area of 12,000 square meters and an open storage for general cargo of 35,000 square meters, comprise the Old Port.

There is now the New Port consisting of a 350 meter length wharf constructed in 1969 with 10 meters draft and which can accommodate 3 vessels. In the New Port are 3 warehouses of a total area of 24,000 square meters and a container yard of 25,000 square meters. Besides these general cargo and container berths is what is called an Oil Port consisting of a jetty (53 meters length, 5 meters width and 4.2 meters draft) and a pontoon (6 meters draft). There also exists a Dry Port located next to the capital city of Phnom Penh near the highway and the railroad which makes it an ideal cargo staging area and distribution point.

To respond to the increasing volume of traffic, PAS, in cooperation with JICA, conducted a feasibility study for the further development and provision of additional facilities at the port. The development plan is highlighted with a 240 meter container terminal, a 300 meter bulk cargo terminal, equipment and dredging as well as the establishment of a free trade zone. The physical development is also being matched by necessary policy reforms.

At the PAS, all port dues and charges, including cargo handling, are quoted in US dollars. Over the years, cargo traffic at this port has consistently risen. In 2002, the total cargo throughput, containerized cargo and shipcalls were registered at 1.674 million tons, 166,638 TEUs and 817 ships, respectively.