Cambodia-Japan Port Seminar 2018

JOPCA Planning Committee Member

Takahiko Kishimoto, Yoshihisa Fujita

Overview

　 JOPCA and Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) of Cambodia organized Cambodia-Japan Port Seminar at Phnom Penh Hotel on December 18th (Tuesday) and at Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (PAS) Conference Room on December 20th (Thursday). The first Seminar in Cambodia was held four years ago in December 2014 and this is the second time held.

This JOPCA Port Seminar has been held in order from Philippines, Indonesia, Viet-nam, Myanmar, Cambodia since 2010, with the aim of the following up of JICA training course graduates in Japan after the return home (organizing the alumni) and the exchange of the technical knowledge and information in port sector.

JICA has been highly interested in such efforts and from this year JICA also started to implement the new alumni program to encourage the engagement with the JICA training course graduates. In the program JICA invites about 20 people, mostly JICA training course graduates, mainly from Southeast Asian countries and they participate various port related seminars including JOPCA Port Seminar and the meetings of exchanging the opinions.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan expects the more synergistic effect with the above efforts and decided to hold Japan-ASEAN Port Engineer Meeting/Seminar at the same time in Phnom Penh.

As described above, the various seminars and meetings related to the port sector by Japanese organizations were held in Cambodia in the same week. Therefore in addition to the participants of JOPCA seminar, invited officials of JICA port sector alumni program and participants of Japan- ASEAN Port Engineer Meeting/Seminar including Japan Dredging and Reclamation Engineering Association (JDREA) members gathered together. As a result the total number of participants of JOPCA Seminar in Phnom Penh reached about 150.

Overall Schedule

December 17 (Mon) Courtesy call visit to the related organizations by the representatives of JOPCA and MLIT

　　　 18 (Tue) 【 Port Seminar (Phnom Penh)】

　　　 19 (Wed) Visit Phnom Penh Port, etc.,

Go to Sihanoukville and visit Sihanoukville Port

　　　 20 (Thu) 【 Port Seminar (Sihanoukville)】

Return back to Phnom Penh

Courtesy Call Visit (December 17)

　 On the day before the seminar the representatives of JOPCA (Mr. Ikeda, President, Mr. Endo, Secretary General, Mr.Fujita and Mr. Kishimoto, Director of Planning Committee) and Mr. Tanemura, Chief Director for International Policy Planning Office, Ports and Harbors Bureau, MLIT, made courtesy call visits to the Japanese Embassy in Cambodia (Mr. Bessho, Minister and Mr. Hirose, Secretary), Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) (Mr. Bavy, Chairman & CEO, and others), JICA office (Mr. Sugano, Chief Representative and others), and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) (Mr. Sun, Senior Minister and others) under the coordination of Mr. Kawasaki, JICA Expert,

　 While the meeting at MPWT where many executive officials such as the chairman of PAS are present, the senior minister kindly gave us the warm words such as "I am very sorry not to be able to attend the seminar due to the political party assembly. I would like to express our gratitude to the Japanese members for the contribution to this meaningful seminar".

Port Seminar (Phnom Penh) (December 18)

We held a seminar from 9 AM at Phnom Penh Hotel. Following the opening remarks of Mr. Ikeda of JOPCA, Mr. Sugano, Chief Representative of JICA Cambodia Office, and Mr. Bessho, Minister of the Embassy of Japan, made welcome remarks. Lastly on behalf of MPWT Mr. Savong, Deputy Director General, GDWMP, MPWT, gave the remarks as a seminar co-organizer.

Mr. Ikeda, JOPCA President

Mr. Sugano, Chief Representive of JICA

Mr. Bessho, Minister of Embassy of Japan

Mr. Savong, Deputy Director General, GDWMP, MPWT

Next, Mr. Kadono, former JICA Expert, nominated Mr. Dara, Director General, General Department of Waterway-Maritime Transport and Port of MPWT from Cambodia side and Mr. Ikeda, President of JOPCA from Japan side as a chairman of the JICA Alumni Association for port sector and they were elected. Subsequently, Mr. Nakao, President of SCOPE, presented engineering handbook for "Execution of Port & Harbor Works in Japan" to Cambodia. After that all the participants took a commemorative photo shoot together.

Mr. Kadono, former JICA Expert

Phnom Penh Seminar Group Photo

The lectures in the morning session were as follows.

"Japanese Port Development and Management System" by Mr. Nishijima, Chairman of Planning Committee, JOPCA

"Phnom Penh Autonomous Port" by Ms. Phanin Hei, Deputy Director General in charge of Business/Operation, PPAP

Ms. Phanin Hei, Deputy Director General in charge of Business/Operation, PPAP

"Port-related Procedures and Port EDI" by Mr. Shishido, Senior Director, Overseas Coastal Area Institute of Japan, OCDI.

The lectures in the afternoon session were as follows.

"Japanese Cooperation for Port Sector in Cambodia" by Mr. Kawasaki, JICA Expert for MPWT

Mr. Kawasaki, JICA Expert for MPWT

"Bilateral Port Technical Exchange - a Case between Cambodia and East Timor" by Mr. Sasa, JICA Expert to APORTIL, Timor-Leste

"Importance of Technical Standards and Recent Technical Issues in Japan" by Mr. Takenobu, Senior Researcher of Port and Harbor Dept., NILIM

"Maintenance of Port Infrastructure" by Dr. Iwanami, Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology

After questioning and answering among the lecturers and the participants, all Cambodian participants were presented the Certification of the Completion of the Seminar and memorial souvenirs. Finally, Mr. Fujita of JOPCA closed the seminar with the expectation that people of port sector in the two countries would continue to cooperate more closely and to contribute to the development of both countries.

Mr. Fujita, JOPCA Planning Committee

148 persons including 68 from Cambodia side participated the Seminar altogether.

Visit Ports etc. (December 19)

On the 19th, we visited three project sites. The first site was the Multipurpose Wharf of Phnom Penh Port at Tonle sap riverside, located at the center of Phnom Penh city. PPAP guided us. This wharf was developed with Japanese grant aide after the civil war. Previously it was used as a container terminal. But after the completion of the new container terminal, it has been for conventional cargo handling and cruise ship berthing. When we visited there, a small Vietnamese flag cruise ship was anchored. At the flag raising tower next to the headquarter building, Japanese national flag was raised together with Cambodia's one.

Then, we visited the rehabilitation site of the Chroy Changwar Bridge across the Tonle Sap river. This bridge was built with the Japanese fund in 1960's before the civil war and was named from Cambodia King as "Japan-Cambodia Friendship Bridge (Nihonbashi)". However in the course of more than 50 years from the opening, due to the heavy damage the limitation of the heavy vehicles has been occurred and it has disturbed the smooth transportation currently. So the entire rehabilitation work is in progress with Japanese grant aid. During our visit the construction office manager of Obayashi Corporation gave us a detailed explanation on the contents of the construction work that utilized Japanese technology such as eco-free blasting method and SFRC pavement.

After that it took about 6 hours on the bus to move to Sihanoukville. With the cooperation of PAS, we visited the container terminal and multipurpose wharf (completed in last June)developed in cooperation with Japan. Mr. Kadono, Mr. Sakata, Mr. Sasa and Mr. Ikeda, who are all successive JICA experts to PAS, explained the current situation of port activities and the future development plan together with their hardship story during their assignment to PAS.

Port Seminar (Sihanoukville) (December 20)

　 The Seminar was held from 8.30 AM in the conference room of PAS. Following the opening remarks of Mr. Ikeda of JOPCA, Mr. Hong, Deputy Chairman of PAS, made a welcome speech.

Mr. Hong, Deputy Chairman of PAS

Mr. Kadono, former JICA Expert, reported about the new presidents of JICA Alumni Association, who were elected at the time of Phnom Penh Seminar. Then Mr. Nakao, President of SCOPE, presented engineering handbook for "Execution of Port & Harbor Works in Japan" to Cambodia. After that all the participants took a commemorative photo shoot together.

Sihanoukville Seminar Group Photo

Lectures started from "Port Management and Operation in Japan" by Mr. Kakei, JOPCA member, and followed by "Japanese Cooperation for Sihanoukville Port" by Mr. Yabunaka, JICA Expert to PAS. Then from Cambodia side, MS. Chey Sokunthea, Director of Marketing Department, PAS, explained about the present situation and the future plan of Sihanoukville port as "Sustainable Growth'. Lastly Mr.Ikeda, Principal Researcher, SCOPE, reported on the current situation and issues of Japanese ports based on his work experience and Mr. Tamura, Chief researcher, SCOPE, explained about the cruse promotion policy and actions of Kobe city.

Mr. Yabunaka, JICA Expert to PAS

Ms. Chey Sokunthea, Director of Marketing Department, PAS

Mr. Ikeda, Principal Researcher, SCOPE

After questioning and answering among the lecturers and the participants, all Cambodian participants were presented the Certification of the Completion of the Seminar and memorial souvenirs. Finally, Mr. Kishimoto of JOPCA stated the success of the seminar and closed it with the expectation of the reunion of all the participants.

Mr. Kishimoto, JOPCA Planning Committee

64 persons including 34 from Cambodia side participated the Seminar altogether.