Sokimex veut construire un nouveau stade?

Désolé pour le texte en anglais, j'aimerais seulement savoir si c'est vrai.
Cambodia builds $200m stadium
Sep 16 2005 08:08:07:090PM

Phnom Penh - Locally based petroleum giant Sokimex has clinched a deal with the Cambodian government to construct a new $200m international standard Olympic stadium for the impoverished nation, company president Sok Kong said on Friday.
Sok Kong told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that he had decided to undertake the project at the urging of Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly president Prince Norodom Ranariddh and the company would fund the construction itself.

"Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh urged me to study and invest to build the new Olympic stadium at Boeung Chouk outside Phnom Penh and I agreed with their idea," Sok Kong said.

The company enjoys an annual turnover of $100m a year, according to its website, and already holds the ticket concession rights to the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex, as well as being a key player in exploration of Cambodia's rich but as yet untapped offshore oil reserves.

Sokimex also built new jails in Phnom Penh and the northwestern tourism hub of Siem Reap, site of Angkor Wat, after land swaps for prime real estate in the centre of those places in recent years.

It was unclear what would now happen to the old, dilapidated but historically significant Olympic Stadium complex, which also lies on prime real estate in the heart of the capital and has been at the core of controversy.

Phnom Penh Municipal authorities could not be contacted for comment.

Sok Kong said the company planned to begin development, which will include hotels, residential apartments, restaurants and entertainment facilities ringing the new stadium, in December this year.

"This is a big project and investment to build a stadium equal to international standards. We will cooperate with a foreign company regarding the construction, but as far as funding, we are ready to invest the entire sum," Sok Kong said.

"We will bear the cost ourselves without foreign investment," he added.

In the past few months, a number of government and state owned properties in the heart of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh including Phnom Penh and Siem Reap police headquarters have been swapped by private companies for larger locations outside of town in deals that opponents have criticised as less than transparent and in some cases are resulting in the destruction of buildings of huge historical significance.

The government has defended the land swaps, saying the buildings involved are old and decaying and the new deals involve larger plots of land with construction costs borne by the companies involved.

As Cambodia enters a period of relative stability after years of civil war, land prices have gone through the roof, particularly in the capital and Siem Reap, the gateway town to Angkor Wat.

Sapa-dpa