Cambodia’s newly inaugurated Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport offers an important window into how China’s Belt and Road Initiative is evolving and what it can still bring to developing countries.

Last month’s Belt and Road Forum in Beijing sparked a torrent of commentary about the program’s successes, failings and future, the economic and political gains from the program over the past 10 years and what Western countries have missed out on.

China and its allies say, unsurprisingly, that the BRI has provided manifold benefits to developing countries. Program detractors argue that the BRI has aggravated the debt burden of participating nations, had a negative impact on their governance, environmental and social indicators, and even been counterproductive to global order.

Construction of the attractive and stylish new airport, which cost about $1 billion and was developed by a consortium of state-owned companies from China’s Yunnan province, was financed by Chinese financial institutions.

The developers will operate Siem Reap-Angkor under a 55-year build-operate-transfer arrangement. The prevalence of Chinese companies at the airport is such that the only noticeable Western equipment is sinks and toilets from American Standard Brands.

The new airport, about 40 kilometers from Siem Reap, is further from the renowned Angkor Wat temple complex than the city’s old airport, which closed last month when Siem Reap-Angkor launched. The move will thus contribute to the preservation of the Angkor site as well as facilitate safer landings.

The new airport will be able to handle 7 million passengers a year, up from 2 million at the old airport, and more cargo. While the capacity to receive more visitors could be important in the future for Cambodia’s tourism-dependent economy, traffic at Siem Reap-Angkor for now is light.

Both when I took off and when I landed last month, there were fewer than five other aircraft parked at the airport and no sign of any shops or restaurants. Surprisingly for a new international airport, jet bridges were not in use and passengers were asked to walk on the tarmac between the terminal and their planes.

A new airport freeway, festooned with signs promoting the BRI, has opened but bus and train connections to Siem Reap and beyond are lacking and the road for now has just one lane going in each direction. 

The area around Siem Reap-Angkor is as yet undeveloped. Some farmers forced to move to make way for the airport have reportedly complained that the compensation they received was inadequate. Yet it appears other landowners along the airport freeway are preparing their properties for sale to potential developers.

While the new airport is Chinese run, a company controlled by French infrastructure company Vinci operated the old one under a monopoly concession that was due to last until 2040. As compensation for early termination of the concession rights, the Cambodian government has said it will pay $63 million to Vinci’s subsidiary, which also looks set to see the airport it runs in Phnom Penh similarly superseded.

But in contrast to some BRI projects in other countries, there is no indication that Cambodia will be left with unserviceable debts even if traffic at Siem Reap-Angkor falls well short of projections since the Yunnan consortium is the borrower that will have to pay back the Chinese banks that financed construction.

At the same time, the notion that BRI projects have driven Cambodia into China’s arms is overly simplistic. Cambodian policymakers are attentive to China because of its huge importance as a trade and investment partner, lender and contractor.

But Cambodian leaders are also extremely attuned to political considerations and they have been attentive to what China can do to advance their ability to deliver economic benefits. Working with China buffers Western pressures on Phnom Penh over democracy and human rights concerns. These dynamics were well underway before the BRI’s launch in 2013.

While much has been made of a shift in the BRI to smaller and greener projects, Siem Reap-Angkor is neither small nor particularly green. It is set to get bigger with planned connections and development and will get less green with increased transportation activity and the conversion of surrounding farmland.

It remains to be seen if Siem Reap-Angkor will get the multimodal connections it needs to flourish and whether it can live up to its potential given the uncertain outlook for Chinese tourism in the post-COVID period due to slipping consumer confidence and slowing domestic economic growth momentum.

But the new airport shows how Beijing is attuned to what developing countries want and that there is more to the BRI than debt traps. Cambodia remains as interested as ever in further BRI projects as was made clear during Prime Minister Hun Manet’s recent trip to Beijing. As long as China and its developing country partners can work out such mutually beneficial arrangements, the BRI undoubtedly has many more miles to run.