Cambodia on Friday broke ground for the reconstruction and upgrading of two national roads with funds from China to cope with growing flows of travel and cargo transport.

The roads included National Road No. 31 in the length of 53.5 km connecting Takeo province with Kampot province, and National Road No. 33 in the length of 52.6 km linking Kampot town with Kep province.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian presided over the groundbreaking ceremony.

Hun Sen said both roads are interconnected and located in the economic pole of southwestern provinces.

"These roads will contribute to the development of tourism in the coastal provinces of Kampot and Kep, which are among the popular tourist destinations in Cambodia," he said. "They will also contribute to boosting trade and investment."

Hun Sen expressed his gratitude to the government and people of China for having provided a great amount of aid to Cambodia for infrastructure development, saying that more than 3,000 km of national roads and a number of river bridges had been built under funds from China.

"These achievements are the fruit of mutual trust, close cooperation and strong solidarity between Cambodia and China," he said. "Good-conditioned roads will reduce both travel time and expense, so our people will greatly benefit from these roads."

Wang said 2022 was a fruitful year of cooperation between China and Cambodia, stressing that a number of China-funded projects such as roads and hospitals as well as an expressway had been put into operation.

"Pragmatic cooperation between China and Cambodia has yielded fruitful results and has been injecting fresh impetus into the building of a community with a shared future between the two countries," he said.

According to the Cambodian Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the two roads are being developed under a preferential loan from China, and carried out by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). The project is expected to take 40 months to be completed.