Public land lease

After decades of solid growth driven by its garment industry, Cambodia is seeking to shift its economy into more sophisticated light manufacturing, such as electronics and auto-parts. Most of these manufacturers are Japanese and they are slowly coming online in Cambodia’s special economic zones, aiming ...

After a seven-year struggle, a Banteay Meanchey teacher finally got $8,000 in compensation for her land, which was seized by the Cambodian military during a border flare-up with Thailand. ...

More than 220 ethnic Tompuon families in Ratanakkiri’s Lumphat district yesterday filed a complaint to rights group Adhoc over a 2,000-hectare land dispute against an economic land concession.   ...

The parent company of U.S. apparel giant Timberland has launched an investigation into claims that security guards at a special economic zone in Kandal province viciously attacked the workers that make the brand’s clothing and footwear, a company representative said Wednesday. ...

The government has warned Mong Reththy Group (MRT), an investor in agro-industrial crops such as palm oil and cassava, that it must pay all outstanding back taxes on its economic land concession in Sihanoukville’s Prey Nop district within three months, according to a document received ...

The government is refusing to release copies of letters it claims to have sent to timber traders Try Pheap and Lim Bunna giving them permission to collect already felled wood on a pair of canceled economic land concessions (ELCs) inside a wildlife sanctuary. ...

Roughly 30 villagers locked in a land dispute with Koh Kong Sugar protested at a construction site yesterday where they say the company was attempting to erect a concrete barrier on disputed land. ...

Mong Reththy Group, one of the Kingdom’s largest agro-industrial conglomerates, insisted yesterday that it had settled arrears on its palm oil concession more than six months ago, contrary to local media reports stating the company owed concession rental fees dating back nearly 20 years. ...

As a national crackdown on illegal logging rumbles on, Try Pheap, Cambodia’s most prominent timber tycoon, issued a public denial of reports that he was linked to an economic land concession (ELC) where authorities found hundreds of cubic metres of potentially illegal timber. ...

In an open letter to the Ministry of Environment, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) asked yesterday for confirmation of a January 19 report in the Cambodia Daily that said new economic land concessions (ELCs) had been given to two tycoons despite a ban ...

After seeing a signing ceremony interrupted by protesters on Tuesday, officials from the joint committee for Borei Keila housing solutions yesterday inked compensation deals with 32 out of 56 evicted families. ...

Timber magnate Try Pheap and businessman Lim Bunna were granted economic land concessions (ELCs) on property inside a wildlife sanctuary confiscated from two other companies for violating their government contracts, a provincial governor told a meeting of officials on Monday. ...

Four Vietnamese military-controlled land concessions in Ratanakkiri province were downsized to a fraction of their original acreage as part of a government audit of land leased to private companies, officials said yesterday, amid opposition criticism of the concessions. ...

Police and government officials say they know nothing about a recent report published by the National Police accusing wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol of using government-approved economic land concessions in Mondolkiri province to illegally log a local wildlife sanctuary, but added that they would investigate ...

Some 1,500 hectares in social land concessions granted to families in Stung Treng province are being illegally cleared and sold by the community’s land broker, according to locals and rights group Adhoc. ...

In a rare move, the National Police on Monday leveled accusations of illegal logging against a number of government-granted economic land concessions (ELCs) in the eastern province of Mondolkiri, singling out a Chinese-owned rubber plantation and wealthy businessman Soeng Sam Ol. ...

Factory owners and four jailed garment workers will be summoned today to appear at the Svay Rieng Provincial Court in the coming days to provide “clarification” over a series of walkouts and riots that struck two special economic zones (SEZs) in Bavet City last month, ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has levelled further criticism at the Vietnamese army’s alleged control of 40,000 hectares of economic land concessions (ELCs) in Ratanakkiri province, claiming that the grants are in violation of the Cambodian constitution. ...

Special economic zones (SEZs), billed as a one-stop shop for potential investors, have had a slow start in the Kingdom – only 13 out of 30 registered zones are operational – with many failing to get off the ground given the difficulty in providing the ...

About 100 residents of Preah Vihear province’s Choam Ksan district gathered at Phnom Penh’s restive Samakki Raingsey pagoda on Wednesday ahead of a planned march calling for justice in their long-running land dispute.    ...

Nobody here seems to know much about Company 72.Locals know they are living on land the company cultivates under a government-granted economic land concession (ELC)—some have tak­en menial jobs tending the crops, all have seen lush forests decimated to make way for them—but beyond that, ...

Two economic zones in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City closed down on Thursday, sending some 30,000 workers home over what local officials said were violent protests by groups of workers demanding higher wages. ...

About 30 members of the displaced Borei Keila community rallied outside Phnom Penh City Hall on Friday, seeking clarification about the compensation on offer to them amid complaints that municipal authorities have not been keeping the community informed. ...

More than 200 people living on a contested plot of land in Ratanakkiri province on Thursday lodged a petition with the provincial court calling for the release of three community leaders who were convicted and jailed on Wednesday over a dispute with a wealthy businessman, ...