Apsara Authority Moves to Offices Far From Siem Reap City
Apsara Authority officials on Tuesday began moving to their new offices far outside of Siem Reap onto land within the Angkor Archaeological Park as part of a swap with the city’s provincial government, officials said. The move comes after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered Siem Reap’s municipal and provincial officials to return to offices in the city center after having moved to rural Ampil commune in March 2010 as part of a highly controversial land swap deal orchestrated by Siem Reap’s former governor, Sou Phirin. … In exchange for moving the provincial government apparatus and building the new offices in Ampil to house more than 1,000 civil servants, J&R Import, Export and Construction Company was awarded the old provincial government’s valuable buildings in the city center without going through a competitive bidding process. The new office buildings were constructed on land inside the protected Archaeological Park. The historic park is divided by a zoning system, with Zone 1 containing sites of the most archaeological significance, while Zone 2 has archaeological remains “which need to be protected from damaging land use practices and inappropriate development,” according to the Apsara Authority. … In any case, when the land swap was done in 2010, J&R gained ownership of prime real estate that has since been sold by the company, according to Lun Sothy, J&R’s director. The firm has declined to say how much profit it made from the sale or to whom the properties were sold. According to Noun Rithy, CEO of Bonna Realty Group, the old locations of the provincial government apparatus would have sold for as much as $900 per square meter when the land swap was conducted. Today, the same land is selling for as much as $1,000 per square meter.
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/apsara-authority-moves-to-offices-far-from-siem-reap-city-42132/
