No.

Siem Reap Province and APSARA Authority, the Royal

Government of Cambodia
Japan International Cooperation Agency

The Study on Integrated Master Plan for

Sustainable Development of
Siem Reap / Angkor Town
in the Kingdom of Cambodia

FINAL REPORT

VOLUME I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

March 2006

International Development Center of Japan

Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.
Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd.
CMO
JR
06 - 003
Siem Reap Province and APSARA Authority, the Royal
Government of Cambodia
Japan International Cooperation Agency

The Study on Integrated Master Plan for

Sustainable Development of
Siem Reap / Angkor Town
in the Kingdom of Cambodia

FINAL REPORT

VOLUME I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

March 2006

International Development Center of Japan

Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.
Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd.
 Currency Equivalents
(Official Exchange Rate in 2004)
US$ 1 = 4,016Riel

Unless Specifically Noted

 Preface
In response to a request from the Royal Government of Cambodia, the Government of
Japan decided to conduct “The Study on Integrated Master Plan for Sustainable
Development of Siem Reap/Angkor Town in the Kingdom of Cambodia” and entrusted
the study to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

JICA sent a study team headed by Dr. Jinichiro Yabuta of International Development
Center of Japan to Cambodia from November 2004 to March 2006.

The team held discussions with the officials concerned in the Royal Government of
Cambodia, and conducted field surveys in the study area. Upon returning to Japan,
the team conducted further studies and prepared this final report.

I hope that this report will contribute to sustainable development of Siem Reap/ Angkor
Town and to the enhancement of friendly relationship between our two countries.

Finally, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the officials of the Government and
those concerned in Cambodia for the close cooperation they have extended to the study.

March 2006

Takashi Kaneko
Vice President
Japan International Cooperation Agency
 The study on Integrated Master Plan for
Sustainable Development of Siem Reap / Angkor Town(SAT)

March 2006

Mr. Takashi Kaneko

Vice President
Japan International Cooperation Agency
Tokyo, Japan

Dear Mr. Kaneko,

Letter of Transmittal

We are pleased to submit the final report of the Study on Integrated Master Plan for
Sustainable Development of Siem Reap/Angkor Town in the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The final report is comprised of three volumes, namely, Volume 1: Executive
Summary; Volume 2: Main Report; and Volume 3: Sector Report.

Since the historic remains in Siem Reap/Angkor Town are not only the world’s cultural
heritage but also the symbol of Cambodia in terms of nation’s identity, as well as her
major source of foreign exchange, an attempt at transforming the Town into a model
city with highly sustainable development is meaningful. However, the Town should
not be sustainable only in itself by merely attracting tourists to a cluster of historic
remains, but instead, to serve as a model city that represents an ideal image of
sustainable development in the 21st Century. Repetitive adjustments and
improvements will be necessary in the process, but insights into Angkorian wisdom and
efforts toward creating environment-friendly atmosphere may help the Town achieve its
goal of transforming into a model city with highly sustainable development.

To this end, the currently booming tourism should be transformed to more balanced and
quality oriented with a smaller loads to the natural environment. It is highly advised
that the Government of Cambodia seriously tackle with urban/environmental
management, including water- and land-use control, which is considered indispensable
in realizing a model city with truly sustainable development.

The long-term master plan suggested in the final report should not be regarded as fixed
and definite. Therefore, revisions and adjustments are welcomed in accordance with
the changing circumstances, whereas the proposed priority projects should fully and
constantly be reviewed for timely preparation and implementation. On the other hand,
the provincial government is advised to strengthen its capacity to monitor, plan and
maintain projects, with the support from specialized national agencies, such as
APSARA and related ministries.

We wish to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to your Agency, Siem
Reap Province, APSARA Authority, Council of the Development of Cambodia and
other distinguished authorities of the Royal Government of Cambodia for their
invaluable cooperation and assistance to the Study.
We do hope that this report will contribute to the sustainable development of Siem
Reap/Angkor Town.

Very Truly Yours,

Jinichiro Yabuta
Leader
JICA Study Team and
Study Consortium by
International Development Center of Japan,
Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. and
Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd.
 Thailand

Location of Siem Reap Province and Siem Reap District

I-i
 Siem Reap District

Central Area of
Siem Reap District

I-ii
 Table of Contents
Volume I Executive Summary

Location of Siem Reap Province and Siem Reap District ············································· i

Map of Siem Reap District and Central Area of Siem Reap District ···························· ii

Table of Contents······································································································· iii

List of Figures and Tables··························································································· iv

Abbreviation List ··········································································································v

1 Background ·······························································································I-1

2. Situation, Prospects and Issues ·································································I-6

3. Strategic Vision··························································································I-8

4. Area-wise Development Approach ·························································I-16

5. Sector Development Plan ········································································I-17

6. Projects and Programs ············································································I-31

7. Institutional and Financial Arrangements ·············································I-35

8. Environment and Social Considerations ················································I-38

9. Recommendations ···················································································I-41

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 List of Figures and Tables
Figures

Figure I.1 Time Frame of the Master Plan Study ............................................. I-2
Figure I.2 Structure of the Reports (1) ............................................................. I-3
Figure I.3 Structure of the Report (2)............................................................... I-4
Figure I.4 Problem Structure of Siem Reap...................................................... I-7
Figure I.5 Strategies to Siem Reap/ Angkor Town 2020 ................................ I-12
Figure I.6 Three Areas of Siem Reap............................................................. I-16
Figure I.7 A Flow of Diagram of Development ............................................. I-21
Figure I.8 Overall Plan for U-1 Project .......................................................... I-22
Figure I.9 Program Sequence......................................................................... I-23
Figure I.10 Distant Angkor Monument Areas and Their Networking............... I-24
Figure I.11 Structure of the Sector Plan ........................................................... I-25
Figure I.12 Principal Road Network (2012)..................................................... I-26
Figure I.13 Proposed Time Frame and Stage-wise Development ..................... I-27
Figure I.14 Wastewater System Layout Plan ................................................... I-29
Figure I.15 Power Distribution Plan in 2020.................................................... I-30

Tables

Table I.1 Outline of Master Plan .................................................................... I-5

Table I.2 Historical Tourist Destinations in Southeast Asia and Siem Reap.... I-8
Table I.3 Scenarios Compared........................................................................ I-9
Table I.4 Two Scenarios Assessed.................................................................. I-9
Table I.5 Strategies and Sector Development Plan: An Overview................. I-20
Table I.6 Projects and Programs Proposed (1/2) ........................................... I-31
Table I.7 Projects and Programs Proposed (2/2) ........................................... I-32
Table I.8 Priority Projects (1/2) .................................................................... I-33
Table I.9 Priority Projects (2/2) .................................................................... I-34
Table I.10 Project Cost Estimate .................................................................... I-34
Table I.11 Capacity Building Program for Provincial Government................. I-37
Table I.12 Summary of Impacts (For all Projects) .......................................... I-38

I-iv
 Abbreviation List
3R Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
ADB Asian Development Bank
APPC Angkor Products Promotion Center
DF/R Draft Final Report
DLMUPC Department of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction
DOE Department of Environment
DPWT Department of Public Works and Transport
EdC Elictricity du Cambodge
FR Final Report
IC/R Inception Report
IDCJ International Development Center of Japan
IT/R Interim Report
JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency
KKC Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd.
MIME Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy
MOCFA Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts
MOT Ministry of Tourism
MOWRAM Ministry of Water Resource and Meteorology
MPWT Ministry of Public Works and Transport
MRD Ministry of Rural Development
NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations
NK Nippon Koei Co., Ltd,
OVOP One Village One Product
PR/R Progress Report
RGC The Royal Government of Cambodia
SHM Stakeholder Meeting
SWM Solid Waste Management
WSP Waste Stabilization Pond

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 Executive Summary

Executive Summary
1. Background
The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA) have recognized a great need for an integrated plan to develop the
economy, to build necessary infrastructures, and, to maintain the quality of the tourism
resources and environment in Siem Reap/ Angkor Town from a long-term viewpoint.

RGC and JICA agreed on the Scope of Work for the Study on Integrated Master Plan
for Sustainable Development of Siem Reap/ Angkor Town in the Kingdom of
Cambodia (the Study) on July 21, 2004.

JICA has assigned this study to be undertaken by a team organized by International

Development Center of Japan (IDCJ), Nippon Koei Co. Ltd. (NK) and, Kokusai Kogyo
Co., Ltd (KKC).

The Study Team started undertaking the study in November 2004, lasting in March
2006, consisting of four phases. Draft Final Report (DF/R) was compiled to propose
the Master Plan in February 2006. In receipt of the comments on this DF/R, the Study
Team has submitted the Final Report in March 2006.

1.1 The Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the Study have thus been set as:

(1) To prepare an integrated master plan for sustainable development of Siem Reap/
Angkor Town in a long run with a view to achieving a reasonable balance among
tourism industry, urban environment, and institutional capacity;
(2) To propose a package of measures with a view to promoting and diversifying local
economy in connection with tourism development as part of the integrated master
plan; and
(3) To promote technical transfer to the Cambodian counterpart so as to strengthen the
institutional capacity of local stakeholders such as government organizations and
community.

1.2 The Study Area

The study area covers Siem Reap District with focus on urban area, while it is extended
to the hinterland of Siem Reap District for the study of local economy.

1.3 Process of the Study

(1) Time Frame of the Study
The Study Team undertakes the study during the period from November 2004 to March
2006. The study was conducted in the four phases, as shown in the figure below.

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 Executive Summary

Note: DICR: Draft Inception Report; ICR: Inception Report; PR1: Progress Report 1;
PR2: Progress Report 2, ITR: Interim Report; DFR: Draft Final Report; FR: Final Report.
Figure I.1 Time Frame of the Master Plan Study
(2) Organizational Set-up
The Siem Reap Province and APSARA Authority are the counterpart agencies for this
JICA Study Team. Thirteen counterpart personnel from the Siem Reap Province and
APSARA were nominated to participate in the Team to work closely with JICA Study
Team members.
(3) Coordination Mechanism for the Study
Inter-ministerial meeting at state level was set up for sharing information and
coordination among ministries concerned. Steering committee at the provincial level
was established for consultation with the Study Team, securing smooth implementation,
and effective use of the Study results.

(4) Process of People’s Participation

This study adopted the people’s participatory approach throughout the course of study.
Among them, Stakeholder Meetings (SHMs) have been held four times. In each SHM, JICA
Study Team presented the idea and content of each report and asked an open discussion to
collect feedbacks. The following table summarizes the outline of SHMs.

Outline of Stakeholder Meetings

Date Report to Discuss Number of Participants
Participants
First February 3, 2005 IC/R 194 Officials, NGOs, Private
Second March 10, 2005 PR/R 67 companies, travel agents,
Third November 22, 2005 IT/R 100 donors, and community
Fourth January 31, 2006 DF/R (Provisional) 200 leaders.

Photo First Stakeholder Meeting Photo Group Discussion at Second SHM

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 Executive Summary

In addition to SHM, JICA Study Team held a series of Commune and Village
workshops time to time to exchange views and opinions with local residents.

(5) Pilot Projects

As part of the Study, the Study Team and counterpart carried out the following two pilot
projects jointly in an effort to enhance awareness and capacity of the stakeholders and
to incorporate lessens and findings through the experiences in the pilot projects into the
Master Plan.
• A More Beautiful Siem Reap: Environmental Awareness
• Angkor Product Fair 2005: for local product promotion

1.4 Structure of Final Report

In this Phase IV, Master Plan has been prepared. It is compiled in this Final Report
(FR). The FR comprises three volumes with the contents shown below.

Figure I.2 Structure of the Reports (1)

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 Executive Summary

Figure I.3 Structure of the Report (2)

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 Executive Summary

The outline of master plan is as shown the table below.

Table I.1 Outline of Master Plan

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 Executive Summary

2. Situation, Prospects and Issues

2.1 Situation
Siem Reap had been an ancient capital of the Angkorian state for about 650 years since
the beginning of 9th centuries. The state was prosperous with sophisticated irrigation
systems that made use of a tidal range of Tonle Sap water. As such, Siem Reap
represents history and culture of Khmer until today.
Increasingly many foreign tourists visit Siem Reap after the achievement of peace. The
number of visitors reached 750,000 in 2004. Population of the district is 139,000 in
2004. In Siem Reap, tourism is estimated to generate the employment about 55
thousand when indirect multiplier effects are taken into account. Tourism of Siem Reap
is important for the country as well, in that it contributes almost 40% of the amount of
foreign exchange necessary to import oil in 2003.

2.2 Prospects
In the following three points, Siem Reap District has distinct strengths as compared
with other parts of the country.
Firstly, the monuments of Angkor are the most important cultural heritage of the
country. It is a world heritage as well. Secondly, the district has good accessibilities
in air, land and water surface. Thirdly, because of these strengths above, Siem Reap
District has received favorable policy support from the national government. For
example, APSARA Authority is a strong arm of the national government to protect the
monuments of Angkor and provide technical support for the urban and regional
development. No other districts or provinces can make use of area-specific national
authority such as APSARA.

2.3 Issues
Despite the prospects above, Siem Reap has faced itself with the following six issues:
Issue 1: Heavy Dependence on Mass Tourism:
The feature of tourism in Siem Reap is short-stay concentrated tourism. Many tourists
visit Siem Reap mostly in groups for a couple of days only. They rush to Siem Reap
during a limited period in the dry season for having a look at the monuments of Angkor.
Most of them never visit here again. They do not visit wide spread excellent
monuments away from Siem Reap. Most of them never visit here again. Here it can
be defined as a typical mass tourism. This feature brings about increasing
environmental loads, limited local benefits and little cultural interaction. One of the
major reasons of these tourists’ behavior is the limited attractiveness only to Angkor
monuments, which needs to create an attractive destination to diversify the tourist types
and their behaviors of short-stay concentrated visit.
Issue 2: Limited Local Economic Benefits
This characteristic of mass-tourism mentioned above tends to provide limited local
benefits. The expenditures by international tourists amount to US $97 million in 2004,
of which 70% is estimated to be retained in the province and induce additional local
consumptions of US$ 38 million. There are potentials to augment local benefits by
expanding tourists’ expenditures through diversified tourism and by retaining tourists’
expenditures in locally.

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 Executive Summary

Issue 3: Poor Urban Environment and Amenities

A tourism boom brings about land speculation and disordered and rushing development
of hotels and guesthouses, which could disturb the Angkor atmosphere. Main streets
are not perceived safe enough to walk around for ordinary individual tourists.
Particularly, up-market tourists are unsatisfactory about safety and cleanliness of the
town, according to our tourist survey. A large gap exists between magnificent Angkor
monuments and shabby town. Tourists tend to simply stay only at the hotels after the
sightseeing. Quality tourism could not be sustained without quality urban space that
shall not spoil the atmosphere of the Angkor monuments. Tourists coming to Siem
Reap expect to see the unveiled Angkor monuments in the deep of forests, to experience
the interaction with Khmer culture and people, and to taste a touch of magnificent
Angkor atmosphere after the sightseeing.
Issue 4: Uncertain Environmental Sustainability
First, a central part of the city where hotels concentrate suffers from chronic flood,
rubbish on the public space and wastewater. Second, the sustainability of natural
resources is uncertain; especially a heavy dependence of potable water on groundwater
has an uncertain risk of land subsidence. These are major threats to sustainability of
the tourism.
Issue 5: Insufficient Infrastructures
A rapid increase of tourists has been imposing heavy burdens on the existing local
infrastructures. The tourists consume and discharge water and materials much more
intensively than ordinary residential people. Especially in peak periods, heavy
pressures are given by the tourist demand on the existing capacity of infrastructures
such as water supply, transportation and electricity.
Issue 6: Weak Local Capacity to Manage Development
The limited capacity for development lies first in the lack of local coordination and
local governance. Financial base is very weak at the local level. In addition, human
resource base is also weak at the provincial and district levels especially in management
and monitoring of
public works, land
management,
information systems
and budget
accounting.

Based on the above

ideas, the following
problem structure is
recognized.

Figure I.4 Problem Structure of Siem Reap

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 Executive Summary

3. Strategic Vision
“Strategic Vision” is a common agenda to be shared by all the stakeholders. It
represents the Siem Rap/ Angkor Town in the target year and the path to it. It
comprises objectives, scenarios, the Siem Reap/ Angkor Town 2020 and six strategies.

3.1 Objectives of the Master Plan

The objective of this Master Plan is to achieve sustainable development of Siem Reap/
Angkor Town toward 2020 through the following measures:
• Tourism promotion in a sustainable way,
• Diversification of local economy based on the tourism,
• Conservation and improvement of environment, and
• Strengthening of infrastructure and administration.

3.2 Scenarios
Keeping in mind that a hands-off tourism growth at present will somehow have to be
adjusted to be more balanced and sustainable, the following two scenarios have been
worked out with special reference to the scale and pattern of tourism. Under these
scenarios, an attempt has been made to forecast the number of tourists, and population
in 2012 and 2020.
• Scenario A: Trend Growth Scenario
• Scenario B: Moderate Growth Scenario

The Number of Tourists

The number of tourists is assumed to increase as forecasted by
UNESCO-APSARA-AFD until 2012 for both scenarios. After 2012, two sets of the
number of tourists are estimated for two scenarios on the assumption that the number of
tourists more or less follows trends of the tourism growth rates as observed at historical
tourist destinations of Southeast Asia. The growth tends to converge into a range of
single-digit percent rate after showing double-digits percent rate in the beginning.

Table I.2 Historical Tourist Destinations in Southeast Asia and Siem Reap
Growth rate
Major Historical
Population International Tourists/
Destination in
(1000) Tourists (1000) Population Past 15 years Past 5 years
Southeast Asia
Ratio
Chiang Mai, Thailand 400 1,800 4.5 8.4% 7.8%
Sukhothai, Thailand 590 208 0.4 0.7% -8.2%
Ayutthaya, Thailand 150 988 6.6 8.0% 3.0%
Borbudur, Indonesia 400 241 0.6 10.7% -1.7%
AVERAGE 385 809 3.0 7.0% 0.2%
Siem Reap
2004 139 561 4.0 53%* 38%
2020 Scenario A 211 3,342 15.8 11.8%** 8.3%***
2020 Scenario B 211 2,007 9.5 9.0%** 3.6%***
* Past 7 years due to data availability.
**16 years !(2005-2020)
*** 10 years !(2011-2020)

Population
The population projection has been based on Provincial breakdown of “the First
Revision of Population Projection for Cambodia 2001-2021”, trend of changes in the
inter-district population distribution within Siem Reap province, and a government

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 Executive Summary

policy not to allow population increase within the Zones 1 and 2.

A part of the tourism employment estimated from the projection of tourists is to be met
by commuting population who live outside the district.

An attempt has been made to roughly estimate the water and power requirements of
residents and tourists and environmental loads of them for assessing environmental
implications of the two scenarios as shown in the table below.

Table I.3 Scenarios Compared

Scenario (A): Trend Growth Scenario (B): Moderate
Base Year
Indicators Projection Growth Projection
2004 2012 2020 2012 2020
Residential Population (1000 persons) 139 171 211 171 211

Commuting Popuration (1000 person) 16 44 100 39 65

Total 858 2,324 4,331 2,220 2,802

Number of Tourists
International 561 1,709 3,343 1,648 2,007
(1000 persons/ year)
Domestic 297 614 988 572 795

Demand for Water Consumption in Peak 9.0 20 34 19 28

Infrastructure Period (1000m3/day)
and Utilities Power Demand Peak (MW) 33 72 117 61 74

Wastewater (BOD: kg/day) 6,364 8,199 10,663 8,172 10,141

Environmental Individual Groundwater intake 7.0 10 24 9 18

Impact (1000m3/day)
Projected Solid WasteAmount (ton/day) 99 177 323 176 295

SOX (ton/year) 35 94 162 77 97

Economic Impact: Consumption Base
172 1,023 771 (1,243*)
(million US$/year)
* Figure in parenthesis indicates the economic impact by a tourists composition in favour of a greater number of individual and up- market
tourists.
Source: JICA Study Team

The demands for infrastructure and utilities and environmental loads will be smaller
under the moderate growth scenario. Economic benefit will be smaller under this
scenario; however, it will be larger if tourist composition were represented by a greater
number of individual and up-market tourists.

A comparison has been made from the viewpoint of national economy, local economy,
environment and tourism. The moderate growth scenario is outstandingly preferable
from these viewpoints as shown the table below. Thus, we recommended that the
moderate growth scenario be adopted for the sustainable of Siem Reap District.

Table I.4 Two Scenarios Assessed

Item Scenario A Scenario B
Very large contribution to foreign currency
National Economy Large contribution to foreign currency earning
earning
Regional Economy Very high growth but unstable High growth and stable
Environment Difficult to manage Manageable
Tourism Quality Possible decline Manageable
Not realistic according to the past trend of
Realization Realistic
destinations in SEA

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 Executive Summary

3.3 Siem Reap/ Angkor 2020

It is essential to set a vision whereby governmental organizations, businesses and local

communities can share a common understanding so that Siem Reap/Angkor Town is
worthy, for the tourists in a variety, of staying, enjoying and visiting again. It is in this
regard that the vision should be strategic to encouraging all the stakeholders to think
and work together in long term.

Thus, we set a vision for Siem Reap/ Angkor Town in the year 2020 as “Siem Reap/
Angkor Town 2020” to be:

“A beautiful and unique tourist city

based on a harmony of history, arts and nature of Khmer.”

As such, Siem Reap/Angkor Town will be featured by the followings:

(1) A quality tourism city where tourists can fully feel a touch of the
Khmer culture, the Khmer history and the Khmer arts.

Siem Reap will evolve into the place in which various tourists stay long and visit
extensive historical spots all year round. In this manner, Siem Reap can reduce
seasonal fluctuation of tourism and ensure sustainability. It will, in turn, be a center of
regional economy. In this quality tourism city:

• About 2 million foreign tourists will visit and many of them stay for more than a
few days every year.
• The tourists will not only be those in group tours and backpackers but also many
individuals, families and those in up-market.
• Those who stay for more than a few days are likely to visit again with a wish for
further touch on the history and the culture of Khmer.
• The tourists will enjoy the city itself for eating, shopping and relaxing. This will
enable many local people to receive economic benefits from the tourism.

(2) A human scale city in the atmosphere of Angkor

The city is the base of Angkor tour. It is in the green. It is also in the atmosphere of
Angkor. The whole city is safe, clean, convenient and comfortable for the tourists as
well as the citizens. In this human scale city;

• 210 thousand people will live. In addition, 65 thousand people will commute
from surrounding districts to work for tourism and other urban activities but not to
cause expansion of undesirable settlements through migration.
• Urban activities will be compact for efficient public services and utilities.
• Built-up areas will be 4,241 hectares at the widest, or about 3 times as wide as at
present. They will be discouraged from encroaching historical, agricultural, green
or food-prone space and encouraged to expand toward southeast.

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 Executive Summary

• City center will be safe, clean and comfortable so that it is a major tourism space
by itself.
• The afterglow of Angkorian experience and atmosphere will be maintained and
fostered for the tourists and the people, with the breeze of the deep forests and in
the panoramic sky of the dramatic sunset.

(3) An environment-friendly city

Angkor state was known for its sustainable resource use. Learning from this wisdom
for sustainable development, Siem Reap, as an environment-friendly city, will be:

• Protecting urban environment from negative impact of rushing tourism and

urbanization,
• Resource and energy saving and recycling to make city sustainable in environment,
• Harmonizing with nature and Angkor heritage, and
• Being a model of Cambodia

The city will thus be sustainable. It will not just sustainable in itself but will offer
implications of the Angkorian wisdom for sustainable development and cultural
diversity and people participation in the 21st century. It is not just the seat of physical
monument either, but the source of universal spirit being conveyed to the rest of the
world. It will also be a cultural magnet in Southeast Asia.

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 Executive Summary

3.4 Strategies

Toward the Siem Reap/ Angkor Town 2020, we propose a set of six strategies as shown
in Figure II.3.3. Strategies 1 and 2 are driving force of the economy of Siem Reap.
Strategies 3 and 4 are supposed to prepare a basis for sustainable development of Siem
Reap. For those strategies to be effective, Siem Reap needs to reinforce physical and
institutional infrastructures through strategies 5 and 6.

Source: JICA Study Team

Figure I.5 Strategies to Siem Reap/ Angkor Town 2020

Strategy 1: Promoting Tourism Focused on Up-market

The current feature of tourism in Siem Reap is short-stay concentrated tourism, which
causes increasing environmental loads, limited local benefits and little cultural
interaction. A fundamental approach to the Siem Reap/ Angkor Town 2020 is to
maximize the positive economic impact of tourism on local economy and to control
environmental load at a reasonable level.

By “aiming at the up-market”, Siem Reap become an attractive destination satisfying

even up-market tourists, consequently satisfying diversified tourists. This approach
associates itself with increasing unit consumption amount per tourist, reducing a relative
weight of peak season tourists and extending the period of their stay, while somehow
refraining the city from attracting the investments and tours for mass tourism. The
individual tourists who stay in the hotels of four-star or above tend to stay longer and
spend more. However, a large part of the tourists are those in the group tours and in

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 Executive Summary

the hotels of three-star or below at present. They all flock into Angkor Wat, with a
result of the congestions and possible damage on the heritage.

In order to attract the tourists in up-market, it is necessary to fill the gap between what
they expect and what Siem Reap/ Angkor Town can offer. Those tourists want not
only to see monuments but also to expose themselves to local people, to enjoy
traditional culture and the town itself. In addition, they are environmental conscious
and feeling satisfied if their spending contributes to the improvement of local people
livelihood and the preservation of Khmer culture. Attractions and improvement on top
of the Angkor monuments is necessary to fill this gap being an attractive destination.

• An integrated planning and management of the site of major Angkor monuments:

parking space, traffic regulation, in-site transit, parks and shops
• Attractions on top of the Angkor monuments including:
- Safe, clean and elegant downtown streets enabling town-walk, shopping and
eating in good atmosphere and townscape.
- Natural environment unique to Siem Reap, Tonle Sap Lake and Kulen Mountain
in particular.
- Interactions with Khmer life and culture through village tours

• Promotion of cultural appreciation and theme-specific routing development and

mobilization of potential cultural resources such as festival, native houses and local
custom.
• Improvement of tour services, including tourist information, transportation within
the district and tour guide
• Strengthening marketing and promotion

Strategy 2: Maximizing Local Benefits from Tourism

A shift to a more balanced tourism will stimulate not only tourism industry but also
other local economic activities. Particularly, individual tourists bring about greater
economic benefits than group tourists. It is necessary to encourage benefit of tourism
to reach many local people.

• A viable approach is to promote a local brand, the Angkor brand. Siem Reap
could capture a larger share of local products by creating Angkor Brands by which
local businesses and farmers succeed in upgrading and selling their products
especially to the tourists in up-market.
• Rural area, especially, is not linked with tourism industry, which gives a limited
benefit. Another approach is to integrate rural economy into tourism by two-fold
measures: promoting community business by One Village One Product to
maximize tourism benefits in the rural area; and creating Production Village to be
incorporated into tourism routing.

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Strategy 3: Making Town More Attractive to Tourists

In view of making city harmonized with Angkor atmosphere, human-scale, and as a

base of distant Angkor heritage tourism, “making town more attractive to tourists” is
proposed as a strategy. According to the strategy, it needs that:

• Urbanization should be guided to form a compact city. Hotels should be

discouraged from being built at any place.
• For all these undertakings, a fundamental task is to establish a consistent,
transparent and strong city-planning framework. Urban planning capacity shall
be strengthened. Road network development as well as drainage in advance is
also one of the tools to guide urbanization.
• A city center area along the Siem Reap River should be improved intensively.
This is a strategic corridor to vividly enhance tourism attractiveness of urban
space.

Strategy 4: Making Town More Sustainable in Environment

Together with the urban attractiveness, the environmental sustainability is crucial to a

more balanced tourism. Learning from the ancient wisdom of resource use, Siem Reap
aims at being an environmentally sustainable city, which will give an additional value
of tourist destination.

Firstly, Siem Reap has to protect the urban environment from negative impacts of
rushing tourism and urbanization. Negative impacts are water pollution from
wastewater, air pollution from increasing vehicles and generators and growing solid
waste. These are deteriorating aesthetic view as a tourist destination as well as
hygienic conditions. It is a minimum requirement for an internationally competitive
tourist city to be clean in public space such as streets and the river. Good drainage,
solid waste management and sewerage are essential. The city should be sustainable in
natural environmental base, water in particular. Prior to treating waste, the
environment should be made sustainable by reducing environmental load through
continuous efforts to enhance people’s awareness and stronger enforcement of
regulations. We propose to cut possible escalation of the environmental loads by 10%
in the coming 15 years.

Secondly, Siem Reap has to harmonize with Angkor heritage as well as the surrounding
nature. Siem Reap should protect Angkor heritages from negative impacts from
tourism and keep these heritages away from risk of damages. Thus, it has to manage:
groundwater intake that has a risk of land subsidence; rushing tourist vehicles in the
Heritage park; and too much concentration on the Angkor Wat. People, especially in
Zone 1 and 2, have to co-exist with Angkor heritage.

With the target areas set in downtown streets and Angkor Heritage Park, Siem
Reap/Angkor Town should address itself to:

• Establishing a strong environmental monitoring unit at the provincial level,

• Accelerating people awareness building for environment,

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• Securing local funds for environmental maintenance,

• Encouraging environmentally friendly planning:
- Urban planning criteria to incorporate environmental standards for hotels,
- Reducing water pollution through drainage and sewerage systems development,
- Solid waste collection and treatment emphasizing on public and residential areas,
- Reducing air pollution from generators through an extensive public power supply,
- Reducing individual underground pumping through widespread use of the new
urban water supply system, and
- Promotion of environmentally friendly transportation in the Heritage Park.

Strategy 5: Strengthening Infrastructures for Tourists and People

Infrastructures should drastically be strengthened as a major basis of the integral set of

tourism, economy and environment of Siem Reap, being an international tourist city.
Those to be substantially strengthened include water supply, roads, drainage, sewerage,
solid waste management and power.

The infrastructures in Siem Reap are to be used by two distinct beneficiary groups: the
tourists and the local people. Infrastructure investments should inevitably stress the
tourists since they are the economic base of Siem Reap, grow faster and are more
recoverable. A number of public facilities and services will have to be provided
through public-private partnership arrangements, in view of limited financial and
managerial capabilities at the local level. It should be made clearer that such PPP
arrangements be made on competitive and transparent bases.

Strategy 6: Strengthening Local Administration and Finance

Another important basis of the integral set of tourism, economy and environment is the
local administration and finance. One should accelerate ongoing initiative of the
provincial governor to strengthen development administration.

• The provincial governor is to set up a committee to cover line departments as well

as APSARA Authority to let them share information on ongoing and proposed
projects in the province.
• Local finance should be strengthened.
• Strengthening human resource base at the provincial levels especially for the
management and monitoring of public works project, land management, tax
collection, the information systems to support coordination and budget accounting.
• Rules and regulations should be enforced with patience but no exception,
especially for areas of enforcement include the use of public land, building permit,
vehicle registration, individual groundwater tapping and environmental control.
• Urban policy should be established and managed under the provincial government
initiative for the reasons being:

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4. Area-wise Development Approach

To materialize the Strategic Vision 2020, this section provides spatial approaches as
area-wise development priorities.

Conceptual Zoning
Siem Reap area is divided into three areas
by its attributes as shown in Figure I.6.
• Urban Area
• Rural/ Heritage Area
• Tonle Sap Lake Area

The Urban Area is defined as the area

which will be urbanized by 2020. For
each area development concept is set as:

Development Concept for Urban Area:

This study prepares the development
concepts for the urban area as “Siem Reap:
Making an Attractive City.”

Development Concept for Rural/

Heritage Area: Rural and heritage areas
co-exist and are inseparable. The area
development concept is set as
“Rural/Heritage Area: The Rural Figure I.6 Three Areas of Siem Reap
Communities Attractive for Tourists in
Harmony with Heritages, Supporting the Tourism and Preservation.”

Under the concept, two approaches for the area are provided as follows:
• Agricultural development in the western suburbs
• Promotion of village and eco tourism based on Khmer Culture.

Development Concept for Tonle Sap Lake Area: The Tonle Sap Area is another
indispensable area to consider Siem Reap and Angkor Heritages. This study prepares
the development concept for the area as “Tonle Sap: The Eco-Tourism Area with
Protection and Sustainable Use of Diverse Natural Environment providing Ideas what
has nurtured Khmer Culture.”

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