Siem Reap’s Secret Multimillion Dollar Land Swap
Inside the grounds of this city’s old provincial hall, past a green corrugated iron fence, municipal street cleaners and their families are squatting in what was once a bustling government office filled with civil servants. Across the road, the former department of rural development is a deserted shell, its surroundings now a rudimentary eatery serving rice and pork to chain-smoking chess players. The scenarios playing out on these plots of land are reminiscent of Cambodian village life. But this is some of the most expensive and advantageously located land in Siem Reap City, Cambodia’s most visited tourist destination where land does not come cheap. The plots are also part of the biggest land swap deal ever carried out by the Cambodian government. The swap, in March 2010, took place after little-known firm J&R Import, Export and Construction Company was awarded a contract to build 60 new office buildings for the provincial government on 42 hectares of land in Siem Reap’s remote Ampil commune. In return, J&R took control of land belonging to the provincial government, including the provincial hall and 26 departments in prime areas of the city center, including a site located next to the city’s Royal Residence and near some of the city’s most luxurious five-star hotels. … Critics of such land deals say they are conducted without public tender and as a blatant boon for those lucky enough to obtain the state-owned land, as they get their hands on a prime piece of real estate in return for building replacement properties on land worth a fraction of the price. Though it is unknown exactly who benefited from the deal in Siem Reap and how much was earned from the consequent sale of some of the government properties, interviews with provincial officials and real estate experts show just how lucrative the deals likely turned out to be and how the decision to carry out the land swap was made at the highest level of government. For example, one plot of land measuring approximately 3,500 square meters that once housed the old provincial hall was valued at more than $3 million when the land swap deal was made in 2010, according to local real estate agents. Part of that land was sold to the owners of the luxury Kep-based Knai Bang Chatt hotel resort in late 2010, the firm’s CEO Jeff Moons confirmed on Thursday, though he declined to say how much he paid. … How much J&R ended up earning from the swap deal is unknown. But the land in Ampil commune, used by J&R to build the new provincial administration, was worth probably no more than $5 per square meter when the deal was made, said Bong Somony, Cambodia Property’s branch manager in Siem Reap. Going by estimates of prices at that time, that would mean the whole 42-hectare site at Ampil would have been worth about $2.1 million, a considerably smaller sum of money compared to the value of the land where the provincial hall and 26 departments once stood. … By law, all the government’s provincial property is controlled by the Ministry of Interior, which must work hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Land Management when conducting land swaps. Deputy provincial governor Bun Tharith said Interior Ministry Secretary of State Prum Sokha was chairman of the committee in charge of the Siem Reap land swap, though he declined to divulge any details about the deal. …
Phorn Bopha and Simon Marks
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/selected-features/siem-reaps-secret-multimillion-dollar-land-swap-42375/
