New owners, old story
An existing moratorium on economic land concessions should be no impediment to pouring more cash into the Kingdom’s booming, and highly criticised, rubber trade, industry executives in the capital heard yesterday, as many current ELCs can simply be recycled to a new crop of investors.
Ly Phalla, director general of the Agriculture Ministry’s General Directorate of Rubber, said at the fourth Rubber PLANT Summit at Phnom Penh’s Intercontinental Hotel yesterday that 70 per cent of land designated for economic land concessions (ELCs) under the previous government was up for “review” and could be sold on to foreign investors.
“The last government placed a moratorium, that [it would allocate] no more ELCs, because [it] already provided 1.2 million hectares [to companies]. But recently, the new minister ordered all the documents for the ELCs [to be sent to] us to monitor and discuss with the companies of the projects,” he said. …
The conference, which was sponsored by three Southeast Asian rubber lobby groups – the Vietnam Rubber Association, the Association for Rubber Development of Cambodia and the Dawei Rubber Planters and Producers Association – is the second of its kind to be held in Phnom Penh. …
The government estimates that by 2050, the $3 million scheme will mean the country produces nearly one million tonnes more rubber for export than using current rubber tree strains, netting the government an additional $3.5 billion in revenue, a figure questioned by some conference delegates. …
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-owners-old-story
