City on a hill sparks little talk
A casino complex on top of Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain will open in less than two weeks – but environmental groups are strangely quiet about the effects the development, the size of a small city, could have on Cambodia’s natural heritage. The complex, in the Preah Monivong National Park, included a casino and hotel and would have a “soft opening” late this month before an official opening mid-year when construction was completed, Thansur Bokor Highland Resort chief executive Dr Ngin Banal said. “Our primary target market is the greater Mekong region, including Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Our secondary market is southern China and Korea,” he told the Post this week. In January, 2008, the government granted the Sokha Hotel Group, owned by Sokimex Investment Group, a 99-year lease for the US$1 billion development. Based on the original plans, the project will also include a 700-room, 18-storey five-star hotel, as well as conference rooms, bars, wedding facilities and two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses. A showroom halfway up the mountain displays a detailed scale model of how the national park will look in about 15 years, when hundreds of houses and villas will stretch back from the mountains southern edge. Despite its scope, forest and animal protection groups have been quiet about the development’s potential impact. The World Wildlife Fund said yesterday it had not worked in the area, so it was “technically very hard for us to comment”. Environmental group Save Cambodia’s Wildlife said its executive director was not available for comment yesterday. … Anne Lemaistre, from the Cambodian office of UNESCO, said time had prevented her examining the environmental impact of the project, but she was a “little worried” about the reported transformation. Tep Bunnarith, executive director of the Culture and Environment Preservation Association, said he wanted information about the environmental effects of the development to be made public. “People want to know this because they can help to improve the situation,” he said. …
