Cambodia began construction of a controversial canal on Monday. The 180-kilometer-long Funan-Techo Canal will connect the capital, Phnom Penh, with the province of Kep on the southern coast of Cambodia and provide access to the Gulf of Thailand. The project will cost 1.7 billion US dollars. Cambodia hopes that the 100-meter-wide and 5.4-meter-deep canal will reduce the cost of transporting goods to the country’s only deep-sea port, Sihanoukville, and reduce its dependence on Vietnamese ports.