Title page

Contents

Acknowledgements 3

Acronyms 6

Executive summary 7

1. Introduction 10

2. Cambodia's development context 12

2.1. Cambodia's socioeconomic context 12

2.2. Cambodia's development strategy 15

3. Cambodia's relations with China 17

3.1. Cambodia-China political relations 17

3.2. Chinese trade, investment and development finance trends in Cambodia 18

3.3. The BRI in Cambodia 20

4. Cambodia's development processes, Chinese investment and the BRI: risks at the national level 21

4.1. Economic fragility and reliance on China 21

4.2. Debt sustainability, creditworthiness and related risks 24

4.3. Government effectiveness 26

4.4. Rule of law and breaches of contract 27

4.5. Land acquisition and speculation 29

4.6. Corruption 31

4.7. Conclusions 33

5. Case study: an in-depth look at Sihanoukville 34

5.1. The context: recent developments in Sihanoukville 34

5.2. Local government effectiveness 36

5.3. Labour market issues 37

5.4. Impact on local communities: discontent of small business owners excluded from Chinese business ecosystems 41

5.5. Conclusions 42

6. Conclusions and recommendations 43

References 46

Appendix 1. Projects supported by Chinese stakeholders in Cambodia 55

Figure 1. Cambodia FDI inflows by country and sector, selected countries (2016) 18

Figure 2. Total ODA disbursement to Cambodia by development partner (2008-2018) 19

Boxes

Box 1. Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SEZ) 35

Box 2. Chinese workers in Cambodia 38