How will China's New Silk Road change Thailand & Cambodia? | The New Silk Road | Full Episode

it has been touted as a key plank in the belton road initiative a high-speed railway linking thailand with the rest of asean a game changer for the entire southeast asian region but is the project moving fast enough the disappointment with the current state of affairs reflects the fact that this government tends to treat this project as a domestic project and in cambodia a high-stakes game that has transformed a sleepy beach town into a casino resort city alongside one of the largest special economic zones in indochina it seeks to make senokvil the shenzhen of cambodia with the target of eventually hosting 300 factories and 100 000 industrial workers from mega infrastructure projects to spectacular chinese casino resorts and massive industrial parks china's belt and road initiative is being celebrated but also causing discontent among locals for us local is very very hard to get the job so people are very very sad in this episode i visit cambodia an enthusiastic participant in china's one belt one road plan and later i'll be heading over to thailand which has seen a surge in chinese investments in recent years i began my quest to examine the impact of china's new silk road in cambodia in the heart of the nation's capital phnom penh here is one of cambodia's most important national monuments a statue of the late king norodom [Applause] the chinese tourists who visit this place every day are reminded of the critical role that china played in cambodia's recent history king sihanouk was cambodia's top diplomat to china and a lifelong friend to beijing he even died in a hospital in china's capital city in 2012. in his lifetime king se hanukkah also enjoyed close friendships with chinese leaders including joe inlai who granted him political asylum and a place to stay in beijing when he was deposed and exiled from his country this is a testament to the historic relationship between china and cambodia which is still strong today after that brief cultural segment many chinese tourists head off to another cambodian city sehanukville is as you guessed it also a tribute to the country's revered late king but it's less known for monuments or temples or shrines it's known for this [Music] in sihanoukville as far as tourism goes the casinos take center stage it's illegal for locals to gamble in cambodia but the 30 odd casinos here in sihanoukville a port city 250 kilometers away from phnom penh is being transformed by chinese money into a resort hub the casinos are luring thousands of chinese tourists to sehenokville every month the industry has proved so lucrative that 70 more casinos are currently being built i visit jinbe hotel and casino one of the city's newest the jin bay opened just a year ago with 30 tables and a staff strength of 560 95 percent of which are local it is currently the largest casino in it's run by ben sinton who is formerly a director in singapore's marina bay sands before being hired by jin bay's parent company to launch this casino in sionockville [Music] why is he hannahville why was this location chosen to set up casinos and hotels about 50 casino license has been issued in sri lanka and the government has planned to develop this place into a mini macau the chinese government took the leading role in the cambodia infrastructure investment without that initiative i believe that the sihanovu city economic growth will be separate by another five to ten years okay for example the proposed the expressway from phnom penh sienna view expressway will shorten the travelling time from phnom penh airport to xiaomovil to one and a half hour this will bring millions of visitors from international and nomping city to the shiano view by then i think a lot we can attract a lot of international player to this location casinos here in cambodia have traditionally been associated with corruption and even links to the mafia how are you going to ensure that your casino is able to maintain an international standard and potentially not be associated with this kind of activity we have to start with the senior management many casinos the ceo is hired by the owner or the owners shareholders uh related people they'll run the way to the according to the owners wishes okay but our company is different we are here to build a brand to build a reputation so that's why we follow strictly international casino standard and procedure so all the equipment we purchase are from the approved uh gaming supplier same standard as an international casino and our process are following singapore and macau procedure to ensure a fair game to the players the chinese casino boom has attracted more than just gamblers to see hanukkah it has also become a magnet for employment in the city attracted by the generous salary and bonus packages offered by casinos like jinbei many locals have moved to seanockville from the country's rural heartlands it's transformed the one sleepy beach town into a massive urban sprawl is one of those who decided to seek his fortunes in this cambodian boom town and the mandarin classes he took in high school helped greatly how do you feel working here do you feel this is a an opportunity or you have many benefits working here at the casino well actually [Music] foreign while cehanukville's growing casino industry has created jobs for the local community i can't help but wonder about the repercussions of fitting more than a hundred casinos in a city which is just one-tenth the size of singapore which in contrast only has two casinos there are currently some 30-yard casinos here in sihana phil and there are plans to build 70 more so how does your casino stay competitive competition is uh inevitable so and the biggest the casino and the more offering of of the casino will attract more players okay so the trend is to worse in singapore style or macau style integrated resort casino so our group plan to build an integrated resort casino expected to be competed in three or four year time but outside the casino walls local businesses are struggling to stay in the game many cambodians are being evicted from their shops because landlords are leasing properties to chinese businessmen who can afford to pay five times more for the cost of rent and to make matters worse local businesses have also lost their traditional customer base western tourists who used to flock here for the sea sand and sun [Music] sahanakville is famous for its never-ending string of beaches along its coastline and it used to be a hot spot for western backpackers but that's now a thing of the past the recent influx of chinese tourists has driven hotel prices almost triple what they once were before so now travelers with lower budgets have stopped coming here and that has had a profound impact on local shops and restaurants vout used to run one of the most popular restaurants in seahanockville two years ago today it is empty vote blames the chinese western people very few i mean very very few and how they don't come anymore why is that yeah because uh chinese take over so they raise the fry up for renting the room so why do you think that the chinese expats don't come to eat at your restaurant chinese they always go to chinese rice wrong stranger they eat there so all the income they want to give back to the chinese people votes case seems clear from scenes just across the road this is one of many chinese eateries in a town we're eating into the market shares of the camaros [Music] um in this high stakes game there are winners and losers professor may kalyan a renowned academic and an economic advisor to the cambodian government shares with me his personal views that the government is still getting up to speed with this problem i don't know the measure to be taken but i'm sure if necessaries you know and everywhere the government had to take action in order to to maintain stabilities the price of hotels go high people could not go there anymore many cambodians feel that it is our countries but we feel like we go to foreign countries and things like that i think it's not a good trend i feel that the problem is speech and too much concentration whatever it is you know if we develop too fast it creates imbalance in a system and then creates some anxiety some animosities some concern about local people but we have to be careful also when dealing with china where to be because you know the relation with cambodia and china whereas we have also positive but we have to work with the chinese government how do we mitigate the negative aspect right it's not difficult to understand why cambodia cherishes chinese investment in syanophil the steady trickle of chinese money into this port city has swelled to an enormous tide but the new money is transforming the city into an investment hub not just for casinos but also for manufacturing it's home to an expanding special economic zone that's widely hailed as a pillar of sino-cambodian cooperation from dense forests haunted by a history of mass genocide during the dark days of the khmer rouge to a resort city sihanoukville is going through monumental changes brought about by chinese investment the chinese are making a splash not just in tourism they've also opened the sihanov special economic zone or ssez a massive industrial park and one of the largest of its kind it spans over 1 100 hectares making it one of the largest special economic zones in indochina it's also located close to cambodia's only deep water port under the watchful eye of both the chinese and cambodian governments the ssez is rapidly growing in addition to offices and residential buildings it also houses close to 100 chinese-owned factories in industries such as textiles and hardware manufacturing it seeks to make cehanokville the shenzhen of cambodia with the target of eventually hosting 300 factories and 100 000 industrial workers hongdo international is one of almost a hundred chinese companies who've set up operations in sihanoukville they may close for the likes of celio mango and zara and other international players it has a 850 strong workforce and most are cambodians what were the main attractions for your company to set up its operations here in the sscz [Music] what benefits has the ssc brought to the local community although sahanakville is the focal point for chinese investment into cambodia the flow of chinese money into the country is a far cry from being localized beijing has pledged billions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects and in phnom penh there are chinese-owned condominiums that are being built at a rapid rate until recently phnom penh used to be a low-rise city now a construction boom funded by chinese money is rapidly altering the cityscape with buildings pushing higher into phnom penh skies i meet with dr kim hyung president of the cambodian valuers and estate agents association he shows me royal one a new property managed by his company kim tells me that the majority of the apartments and offices here have already been swept up by chinese buyers so how has the cambodian real estate industry been responding to this boom before chinese investors come in the price is really cheap but after the chinese basically come they buy the land they build control they sell it may profit some area the land price agreed to to fight time within one years so those who own land they get to be defeated from the chinese fp how have cambodian real estate agents been responding to this film i can tell you i noticed that for 13 years 13 years ago if you really stayed you don't need to speak foreign languages you don't need to know how to use computer software but now the market is different if you work in real estate now you must be qualified in foreign languages english and chinese you must speak two of them english is for everyone communication chinese club deal chinese you make money this belief that the chinese would lead you to prosperity is shared by the cambodian government who staunchly supports china's belt and road initiative the alliance between the two countries who recently celebrated 60 years of relations has never been stronger beijing recently pledged over 7 billion u.s dollars to finance projects in electricity as well as building new airports and roads including a mega four-lane highway to connect sihanukville with the nation's capital but it's not just money that china has contributed to cambodia when the united states and the european union threatened to slap cambodia with sanctions over the arrests of its opposition leader and the dissolution of his party it was china that stood by its ally and voiced support for cambodia's efforts to maintain order it's very clear uh chinese assistance is very important because we need stabilities and to help us otherwise we have problems so many complex situations to make decisions and american or european a few countries they only pick up one element okay if you don't do this tension or democracy you're not democracies so why that right so why extension all the time why we have to vary all these the big the big powers you know pressure on us all the time right why lecturing all the time we destroyed our countries we made our countries miserable nothing and then come to lecture us about democracies we had to be mindful of this also but sometimes we could not please everyone some local media have already chosen signs a case in point is fresh news an independent online news platform whose mantra is to be the first to break the news the 2018 chinese new year celebrations marked a fresh start for the publication it launched a mandarin edition as part of a revamp fresh news's co-founder and chief editor lim chiavuta tells me the platform now has 2.5 million subscribers which include chinese government officials expats and businessmen why did you decide to come up with a mandarin addition to besides the potential advertising revenue lim is a fervent believer in china's new silk road plan fresh news is known for promoting china its policies and its investments [Music] foreign this journey to cambodia has given me a lot to reflect on i've realized like in any business partnership both sides have their own set of vested interests for china this developing nation offers rapid economic growth and good returns on investment cambodia on the other hand is eager to develop its economy without the human rights demands from the west through their various collaborations both countries have found that their interests are indeed aligned but it is a more complicated story in neighboring thailand asean's second largest economy has been far more reticent about china's one belt one road plan [Music] [Music] i'm in bangkok the capital of thailand home to one of the world's largest chinese minorities a gateway to southeast asia's 600 million consumers and more recently it has become a hot investment destination for china but for me personally this trip marks a homecoming i grew up in this country my family moved here when i was three and i lived in chiang mai until i was 18. more recently my wife and i lived and worked in bangkok for two years so i have a strong personal connection to this country with its majestic temples vibrant markets bustling cities and most importantly its people i'm interested to find out how thailand's recent engagements with china is transforming a country that brings back so many memories [Music] make a trip to bangkok's old town any day and you'll see large groups of chinese tourists making their way to attractions such as the royal palace and wat po temple the chinese make up the largest group of visitors to thailand every month i meet with pontiff hirunkat vice president of the association of thai travel agents to learn about the impact of the massive influx of chinese tourists on the country what has been the average thai's response to this rather large number of chinese tourists in the country i have to say you know frankly uh first it was there's some resentment from from local people because they never used to have this many chinese tourists gradually now they realize and because the chinese they do spend and i think they really help our economy according to pawn tips statistics each chinese tourist spends an average of 3 000 us dollars per trip eager to grab a share of all that chinese spending many thai businesses are transforming their business models the rom 100 complex is a cultural theme park a one-stop destination where tourists could get a taste of thailand complete with the archetypes mangoes floating market and ladyboys with your business here what kind of experience do you aim to give to the chinese tourists nina but in an attempt to make this place more chinese-friendly some cultural elements had to be tweaked a little instead of nagas and elephants a large fortune cat greets me at the entrance of the park and the daily cabaret performances held here feature performers in mystical chinese costumes [Applause] images of mao tsetong and tinamin square are looped in the background as they lip lip-sync to mandarin ballads [Music] [Applause] [Music] despite asamon's best efforts to woo visitors he is actually struggling to keep this park running this artificial lake at the end of the park was once filled with boats selling local produce it also used to serve as a venue for the annual songkran or water festival celebrations but asimon was forced to close this section of the park due to the declining number of visitors which has dropped by more than half compared to two years ago he tells me that he has lost most of his business to a rival establishment run by a chinese company the tour company which has affected asamon's business engages in a controversial practice known as zero dollar tourism [Music] this is how the zero dollar tours work first a travel company in china sells insanely cheap tour packages to unsuspecting buyers when these chinese tourists arrive in thailand they're not brought to the usual tourist attractions such as temples and markets instead they are taken to restaurants and souvenir shops which are all partially owned by companies based in china and then they are prevented from exploring the country on their own by their chinese tour guide who forces them to go shopping instead of sightseeing the main problem that thais have with these tours is the fact that the revenue generated goes back to china at the expense of local tour guides shops and restaurants the tours also avoid local taxes depriving the thai treasury of millions the government that both thai and chinese government realize it and they have uh bring it to a stop and then uh and it's improved now zero dollar tours haven't completely gone away but regular government crackdowns offers some hope that they'll be a thing of the past and thai's are still warmly welcoming chinese visitors to the country some are even going a step further by learning mandarin to help them serve this growing market others are pushing their children to pick up the language and pick up the language they have very quickly [Music] complete with polished accents and crisp pronunciations these students sound like beijing natives but they are thai concordian international a private school in bangkok prides itself for being one of the first schools in the country to integrate mandarin into its curriculum here students spend a third of their school day learning mandarin from kindergarten all the way through high school so why chinese though i mean you could have gone with the option of german or french or spanish but why did you decide to found your school on teaching chinese as i travel around anywhere in the world it's almost everything every place i go i pick up a product everything made in china and i realized that you know how how how important it is gonna be and i also see that many people trying to come to business in china if they don't speak the language it's actually difficult very difficult knowing their language and understanding the culture is really helpful to deal with business it's not just the language that students in concordia are exposed to but chinese politics and socio-economic issues as well the school even has classes specially dedicated to discussing china's one belt one road plan um so you guys are actually studying about the one belt one road policy in your class very impressive wow can you talk about why your school covers topics like china's one belt one road because this is actually quite a complex issue that even adults find challenging so why is it that you feel it's important to feature here in your school the one belgium road is going to have a major effect in thailand and maybe the whole asean we want the kid to have a positive view about a possibility of what could happen between thailand and china and the rest of the world the growing number of thai schools offering mandarin lessons reflects a belief that thailand's economic future rests with its engagement with china this view is shared by former thai prime minister opposite vegeva a strong proponent of china's belt and road initiative overall what benefits do you think china's new silk road will provide for thailand and for the rest of asean well infrastructure investment is needed here in the country and the fact that we want to build an asean community an economic community and the idea that we should be the center of indochina i think can benefit from the new silk road initiative we also believe that with these investments there will be more opportunities for rural people in thailand particularly maybe along the route of these linkages especially in the northeast we also will have access to the huge chinese market these are all clear benefits from a country that has seen investment crimped by a decade of political turmoil thailand has seen a surge of investment in recent years thanks to china but will the tangled negotiations surrounding a mega railway network threaten to derail saino thailand [Music] relations by pumping in an average of 30 billion dollars a year china has claimed the number two spot on the list of the largest investors to thailand but about five years ago it was barely in the top ten this is what changed things a military coup in 2014 which saw many foreign investors abandon asean's second largest economy the chinese on the other hand saw an opportunity and since then they have long enjoyed warm welcome in a country still struggling to draw investments over the past few years china has emerged as the second largest investor in thailand previously it was barely in the top 10 list of investors in thailand why the sudden change and what opportunities do you think that china sees in thailand it just reflects the growing economic power of china and secondly i i believe that it's also a deliberate policy of china to have become much more outward looking and wanting to play a much greater role in regional and also even in global terms there's a feeling of affinity between thai and chinese people geographically we are at the center of indochina in the past five years many chinese companies have set up manufacturing operations in thailand to get closer to the supply of raw materials i visit fangdi latex company a leading producer of rubber mattresses and pillows its factory is located within a special economic zone in thailand's chonburi province the company set up here for easy access to rubber supplies but that isn't the only reason there's also the labor fangd's chinese owner sia ming xiao staffs his entire factory floor with thai workers he even speaks the language hello to my son long [Music] i travel to visit fandi's flagship outlet in bangkok's huequang district a hub for a very different sort of business from what it used to be in the old days i'm told used to be a popular red light district but in just two years since chinese shops started opening here it's come to be known as new chinatown ming xiao tells me that hundreds of chinese expats and tourists visit this outlet every month [Music] china's export of technology to thailand has extended beyond manufacturing into key areas such as transport the two countries are collaborating to build a high-speed railway network which would allow high-speed trains to travel from kunming in southern china to malaysia via thai cities such as nankai nikon rachisima and bangkok it was former thai prime minister opposite vegeta who touted the high-speed rail network as a game changer for the entire southeast asian region more than six years ago he's still just as optimistic of the project's potential could you take a moment to share about the importance of the high-speed railway project for thailand and if realized how will this help thailand well ultimately we'd like to see this go all the way to singapore and you know asean has made numerous studies about how we want to have a seamless uh or a connected region um this can only become a reality if these projects these kinds of projects are completed it will help uh you know make the benefits of the free trade agreements or economic partnership agreements uh concrete because you know you can reduce tariffs you can have all kinds of agreements but if there is no facilitation in terms of moving goods and services across the border then these agreements would not amount to much so i think it will contribute to a stronger asean economy but the reality is work on the high-speed rail project is moving much slower than everyone had hoped thai and chinese leaders have signed agreements and attended groundbreaking events together but the fact is they still haven't reached a conclusive deal the high-speed rail was unveiled in 2014 and since then the project has been dogged by repeated delays over loans financing as well as labor and environmental regulations a lot of thai engineer they have considered either long long project and it costs a lot of money it doesn't work we have already you know we already have a railway connecting between thailand and laos and and china you know going to construct a railway from kunming to lao so we are really connected you see there is no need for a high-speed train late night soon foreign thailand's high-speed railway network was originally supposed to start in nonkai which shares a border with laos it would then pass through nakhon ratchasima to bangkok however only the kilometer line between nakhon ratshushima and bangkok is now slated for construction without the crucial link between laos and bangkok china's plan of connecting yunnan with thailand through a high-speed railway is effectively stalled analysts who are eager to see the project get up to speed blame the derailment on a mixture of bad timing and a lack of political will first it does you know the present government came to power by crudetta so they are quite reluctant you know to initiate some big thing if we wait until we have a legitimate government that elected by general election maybe they are they they won't hesitate they are more willing to make a big decision you know for this for the big project like like when they were lost the disappointment with the current state of affairs reflects the fact that this government tends to treat this project as a domestic project i think if we put this in a regional perspective with a government that has a strong political will to pursue this and also to think in the longer term about connecting up to all the neighboring countries then i think this project will be will be given a new life i conclude my trip to thailand with a cruise down the chaopia river which runs through the heart of bangkok all the way into the gulf of thailand sailing down this river gives me the chance to explore the city without getting stuck in the massive traffic jams that bangkok is notorious for and apart from several new condominiums and office buildings that have popped up i haven't noticed that many major changes compared to a few years ago the reality is that compared to cambodia where signs of chinese investment and joint infrastructure projects are hard to miss there is less demand for infrastructure in asean's second largest economy which is fairly developed the current thai government is also cautious about committing to long-term infrastructure deals with any country but with the general election looming many ties remain optimistic that projects such as the mega high-speed railway might be put back on track under the next government in the meantime it's full speed ahead for china as it continues to expand its political and economic influence and strengthen relations with countries across asean through its one belt one road infrastructure plan [Music] you

Channel: CNA

Views: 1,064,065

Rating: 4.6786752 out of 5

Keywords: China, Silk Road, Thailand, Cambodia, belt and road initiative, Sihanoukville, Thailand high speed rail

Id: 9CeYy5G9bDg

Length: 47min 8sec (2828 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 26 2018