Power couple linked to Sinohydro project
Two of the country’s most powerful and politically connected business owners are on the board of governors of the company thought to have brokered a controversial deal between the world’s largest hydropower developer and the Cambodian government, documents obtained by the Post show. Cambodian People’s Party senator Lao Meng Khin and his wife, Choeung Sopheap – owners of Boeung Kak lake developer Shukaku Inc and the Pheapimex group, respectively – are listed as third-party governors of Sinohydro (Cambodia) United Ltd. That firm is a local “affiliate” of Beijing-based Sinohydro Corp, according to the company’s registration papers, which are dated April 4, 2006, and signed by Koem Sithorn, then-secretary of state at the Ministry of Commerce. … Meng Khin’s Shukaku Inc was granted the lease for a $79 million development of the Boeung Kak lake area of Phnom Penh in 2007, after which more than 1,500 families were forcibly evicted. As of 2007, Pheapimex controlled 7.4 per cent of Cambodia’s total land area, according to Cambodia’s Family Trees, published that year by London-based NGO Global Witness. Two “joint ventures” with Chinese company Wuzhishan LS and Kong Triv, another tycoon and CPP senator, for economic land concessions in Pursat and Mondulkiri, have led to serious human rights abuses, the report noted at the time. …
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/power-couple-linked-sinohydro-project
