Public land lease

Economic land concessions (ELCs) are supposed to be transforming Cambodian agriculture into a heavyweight industry and raising the living standards of millions of rural Cambodians, according to government policy documents. ...

Under Cambodian law, the right to organize is supposed to be ironclad. No employer, government agent or citizen may impede union activity. Inside the walls of Cambodia’s largest special economic zones (SEZs), however, In These Times’ reporters saw a system designed to tightly control the workforce by ...

More than two-thirds of the 158 land disputes triggered by large-scale plantations over the past two decades have yet to be fully resolved, according to a new report by the NGO Forum on Cambodia.   ...

In 2010, more than 1,500 families in Kampong Speu’s Oral district were evicted from the land they had cultivated since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 to make way for a Phnom Penh Sugar Company mega-plantation.   ...

Thailand-based JWD Infologistics Plc’s recent purchase of a 5.2 percent stake in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone Plc (PPSEZ), is expected to give a boost to the local company’s traded share value on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX). ...

The Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) jointly operated by a China-based conglomerate and the Cambodia International Investment Development Group Co. Ltd reached a milestone yesterday with the 100th factory set up to operate in the economic and trade cooperation zone. ...

Despite earlier statements by company representatives that $500 compensation packages being offered to land disputants at Ly Yong Phat’s Kampong Speu economic land concession (ELC) were negotiable, attendees of a meeting between company representatives and residents yesterday said they felt pressured to take the offer. ...

Senior Minister in charge of Special Missions Ly Thuch announced yesterday that a land dispute resolution task force will be created for Ratanakkiri province, although observers said the move was coming too late.   ...

Tensions flared yesterday between 20 Bunong ethnic minority villagers and a coffee company operating on an economic land concession in Mondulkiri’s Pech Chreada district, prompting local authorities to investigate.   ...

Between 2009 and 2012, the Ministry of Environment went on nationwide leasing spree, signing over vast swaths of the country’s nominally protected areas to private companies for rubber plantations and other agribusiness ventures.   ...

More than 300 families in Kompong Speu province this week signed a deal with Senator Ly Yong Phat’s Phnom Penh Sugar Company aimed at ending their long-running land dispute, though several of the families have yet to agree on compensation.   ...

About 100 additional families have accepted compensation pack­ages from Union Deve­lop­ment Group (UDG) to relocate and make way for the massive development project the Chinese firm is building along the coast of Koh Kong province, according to the Environment Ministry.   ...

A special economic zone developer will be allowed to continue bulldozing a mangrove forest in Preah Sihanouk province’s Teuk Thla commune, the provincial governor said yesterday.   ...

More than 200 people representing three Preah Vihear province communities were set to discuss land disputes yesterday when police broke up their public forum, according to Tork Hong, a representative of a local community from nearby Prey Lang forest.   ...

After an unexpected surge in Thai investor interest, Phnom Penh SEZ Plc has secured sufficient commitments to fully cover the strategic and bookbuild share allocations of its initial public offering (IPO), and has determined an issue price for shares to be listed on the Cambodian ...

Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vattana has weighed in on a prolonged land dispute at the Battambang Provincial Court that has seen three protestors shot and another imprisoned. ...

Phnom Penh SEZ Plc, which operates a 357-hectare industrial park on the outskirts of the capital, held a bookbuild last month to determine the share price for its upcoming initial public offering on the Cambodian stock market. The private company aims to raise between $8.1 ...

Some 34 families in Kampong Chhnang’s Lorpeang village yesterday filed a new petition at the provincial hall urging authorities to intervene in a nine-year land dispute with KDC International, which villagers say has reached a bottleneck and is affecting their daily lives. ...

Several hundred protesters representing some 4,000 families from Tbong Khmum’s Memot and Dambe districts arrived in the capital yesterday to petition against powerful private interests they say are encroaching on their land. ...

After numerous delays, industrial park operator Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone announced yesterday that it had finalised a timeline for the launch of its upcoming initial public offering, and would kick off a five-day bookbuilding session starting on April 18 and hold a public roadshow ...

Representatives of 526 Koh Kong families hopped on their motos on Friday morning to deliver petitions to their district town halls calling for the return of land taken from them by a 2006 economic land concession (ELC), as well as compensation for lost crops.   ...

On Friday, it will have been a month since Prime Minister Hun Sen took the stage during the opening of the Environment Ministry’s palatial new headquarters in Phnom Penh to announce that 1 million hectares had been confiscated from wayward landholders and would be doled ...

One of Thailand’s leading agricultural groups and a major producer of animal feed will build a $30 million factory in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone, company officials announced last week. ...

Thai executives are encouraging their government to build business centers in Cambodian provinces that border the country, as well as in its other ASEAN neighbors, according to Thai media reports. ...