Deutsche Bank, IFC Rubber Investments Questioned
May 13th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Economic Land Concessions, Land Tenure
Deutsche Bank and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) have poured millions of dollars into Vietnamese rubber companies operating in Cambodia that have engaged in illegal logging and forced evictions of local farmers, the environmental rights group Global Witness says in a new report released today.
In the report, Rubber Barons: How Vietnamese companies and international financiers are driving a land grabbing crisis in Cambodia and Laos, Global Witness, which is based in the U.K., links Deutsche Bank and the IFC to two Vietnamese firms backing a long list of “shell companies” that, according to the organization, are breaking forestry laws at the expense of eastern Cambodia’s remaining forests and the villages that depend on them. …
Drawing on satellite images, government and corporate documents, field visits and exchanges with firms involved, Global Witness deduced that the IFC currently has $14.95 million stake in a Vietnamese-based investment fund investing in Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), a Vietnamese rubber firm listed on the London Stock Exchange. The organization also says that Deutsche Bank holds another $4.5 million worth of HAGL shares, along with $3.3 million in shares of Dong Phu, a member of the state-owned Vietnamese Rubber Group (VRG). …
Combined, Global Witness says, HAGL and VRG alone now control at least 180,000 hectares of rubber plantations in Cambodia.
“HAGL and VRG’s ultimate ownership of these [subsidiary] companies lies behind an intricate web of shell companies,” the Global Witness report says. “This allows them to disguise the fact that they have massively exceeded Cambodia’s legal limit on land holdings,” which sets the ceiling for any on person at 10,000 hectares. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/deutsche-bank-ifc-rubber-investments-questioned-23598/
Egat wants coal plants in Cambodia, Myanmar, Krabi
May 13th, 2013, The Nation, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Foreign Investment, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Natural Gas
Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal has given the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) the green light to proceed with a plan to build coal-powered plants in Myanmar and Cambodia – providing Thailand with 10,000 megawatts of electricity. Egat has also been instructed to negotiate the purchase of nuclear power from China in order to bring down the cost of electricity. …
In addition, the Energy Ministry has also been discussing the possibility of investing in a coal-powered plant in Cambodia to produce 4,000MW of electricity. Thailand hopes that buying power from Cambodia will keep the domestic cost of electricity from exceeding Bt6 per unit. Egat also plans to go ahead with its coal-powered project in Krabi once it has reached an “understanding” with residents and businesses protesting against the deal. …
In addition to investing in coal-operated power plants from neighbouring countries, Egat is also looking at investing in hydro-electric power projects within the region. …
Watcharapong Thongrung
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Egat-wants-coal-plants-in-Cambodia-Myanmar-Krabi-30205968.html
Hun Sen Orders Toxic Ice Factory Shut Down
May 13th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, Social Concerns
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that he had ordered a Phnom Penh ice-making factory to shut down, after pungent chemical emissions from the plant in Russei Keo district caused more than 100 nearby residents to be hospitalized with breathing problems on Friday.
At least 20 of those hospitalized had to spend the night in the hospital, while 100 more were prescribed medication and told to return on Saturday to check ammonia-absorption levels, according to district health chief Phan Phearath. Ammonia is used in the ice freezing process. …
Mr. Hun Sen, speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a pagoda in Kompong Chhang province on Saturday, blamed the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy for allowing the factory to pollute the area with toxic chemical gases, and for refusing to act on on-going complaints by the community. …
Neou Vannarin
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-orders-toxic-ice-factory-shut-down-23617/
Investment and Trade Fair Opens In Koh Kong
May 13th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, Economics, Exports, Foreign Investment, Imports, International Relations, News Source, Trade
The first three-day Koh Kong Investment and Trade Fair 2013 kicked off on Saturday, promoting trade and investment in the southern provinces of Cambodia with neighbours Thailand and Vietnam. …
“The [fair] is aimed at promoting trade and development in Koh Kong province and other border provinces in the southern region of the country, which is to further enlarge trade and the economy between Cambodian provinces, and with the provinces of Thailand and Vietnam that are boardering Cambodia in this southern region,” said Cham Prasidh, Cambodia’s Minister of Commerce. …
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051365565/Business/investment-and-trade-fair-opens-in-koh-kong.html
CPP Senator Wins Power Transmission Contract
May 13th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Electricity, Energy, Hydroelectricity
The government on Friday awarded CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat a $92.21 million contract to install power lines in Cambodia’s eastern provinces, the Council of Ministers said in a statement.
During the weekly Cabinet meeting, senior officials including Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on the deal to extend the national grid by connecting Phnom Penh with Kompong Cham, Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces. …
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/cpp-senator-wins-power-transmission-contract-23634/
Navy arrests 4 Cambodian rosewood smugglers
May 10th, 2013, Pattaya Mail, Environment & Natural Resources, International Relations, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Royal Thai Navy ships intercepted a Cambodian fishing boat illegally smuggling 10 million baht in Siamese rosewood out of the kingdom. …
The HTMS Chao Phraya staffed with military, customs and forestry office personnel captured the 18-meter-long fishing vessel carrying 296 logs in its fish holds April 28 in Rayong Bay. …
Navy officials said the smuggled logs were to be offloaded in Vietnamese waters. …
Patcharapol Panrak
http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/navy-arrests-4-cambodian-rosewood-smugglers-25782?ref=pmci
Work underway on ‘catastrophic’ Cambodian dam
May 10th, 2013, DW, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Farming, Fishing, Hydroelectricity, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Social Concerns, Water
Srekor village has stood on the banks of the Se San River in northeastern Cambodia for generations. In a few years it will be gone, submerged along with more than 300 square kilometres of surrounding farmland and forest. …
For 37-year-old rice farmer Pa Tou, the future looks bleak. The relocation site set aside for them is wholly unsuitable, he complains. There is no irrigation, it is miles from the river and the ground is either rocky or covered with trees. And at this stage it has no schools, no health clinics, no pagodas and no roads. …
International Rivers, a campaigning NGO, predicts the Lower Se San 2 Dam “will have a costly, catastrophic impact on the Mekong River’s fisheries and biodiversity”. …
But media reports consistently show the government favors projects like hydropower dams and coal-fired power stations. More are likely to go ahead. On May 9, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said two more planned dams on the 3S network had been deemed economically feasible, moving them a step closer to approval. One would be a 370MW dam on the Se San River; the other a 100MW dam on the Sre Pok River. The first would flood 40 villages alone.
Meanwhile the Cambodian government has plans to build a hydropower dam on its stretch of the Se Kong River, which rises in Laos. Baran says that would block the region’s third fish highway, leaving the Mekong mainstream as the sole route for migratory species, further harming fish stocks. The rush to hydropower risks inflicting profound and irreversible damage to many more people than the residents of Srekor village.
Deutsche Welle Staff
http://www.dw.de/work-underway-on-catastrophic-cambodian-dam/a-16803423
Opposition Lawmakers Want ‘Social’ Land to Go to Farmers
May 10th, 2013, VOA, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Economic Land Concessions, Farming, Industry, Land Tenure, Rice, Social Land Concessions
Cambodian lawmakers have passed a new law on agriculture, but critics say the law does not go far enough to protect the country’s farmers.
The law passed on Thursday evening, but not before debate at the National Assembly. …
During the debate opposition representatives called on the Cambodian government to stop providing land concessions to private companies—either for economic or “social” aims. So-called social land concessions are supposed to go toward the poor. But opposition lawmakers warn that they too can be abused by private companies. …
[Opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker] Yim Sovann also said the government should create a fund of $100 million to protect rice farmers against price fluctuations. That money could come from revenues on casino tariffs, he said. …
Chan Sarun, a CPP government representative, told the Assembly that a $100-million fund is not possible. And he said the government has already banned land concessions, since May 2012. Some 50,000 hectares have been saved from private development since the ban, he said.
In fact, watchdog and rights groups have said many concession deals have continued, despite an announced ban by Prime Minister Hun Sen in May 2012.
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/opposition-lawmakers-want-social-land-to-go-to-farmers/1657922.html
Villagers Make Heady Claims Against NGO
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Disputed Land, Forests, Land Tenure, News Source, Protected Areas
Families living in Koh Kong province have called on the provincial governor to intervene in what they claim are ongoing land disputes with Forestry Administration authorities and conservation NGO Wildlife Alliance.
Thirty-eight families from Mondul Seima and Khemarak Pumin districts have 110 hectares of land between them that authorities are refusing to allow student volunteers to measure, community representative In Chhron of Bak Khlang’s Cham Yeam village, said yesterday. …
May Titthara and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065550/National/villagers-make-heady-claims-against-ngo.html
Kingdom to reach rice target
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Agriculture & Agri-business, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, News Source, Rice
Following a considerable increase in Cambodia’s milled rice exports in the first four months of the year, Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said he was optimistic the Kingdom’s rice exports would reach the 2015 target of one million tonnes.
With this year’s export figures notably higher than those of the same period last year, Prasidh said he believed exports of milled rice would reach more than 300,000 tonnes in the first six months of the year, mostly absorbed by European markets. …
According to data from the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export Formality, Cambodian milled rice exports reached 118,500 tonnes in the first four months of this year compared with 51,466 tonnes in the same period last year. …
Rann Reuy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065539/Business/kingdom-to-reach-rice-target.html
‘Power cuts just a transitional problem’
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Electricity, Energy, News Source
Recurring power cuts and power shortages draw sharp complaints from Cambodia’s public, the political opposition and business owners. Keo Ratanak, director-general of Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), talked to the Post’s Sarah Thust.
What is EDC doing to reduce electricity cuts here?
The issue of power shortage is not a surprise to the Royal Government of Cambodia and EDC. We had forecasted many years ago that Cambodia would be precisely in the situation that it is in today.
That is the reason why EDC and the government had been working very, very hard to attract investment for [power] generation projects in hydropower, in coal-fire plants, in biomass power plants, and importing power from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. …
What is the reason for the electricity shortages, then?
Investment needs time and construction of projects needs time. Each construction usually takes four to five years, [not including] the time to negotiate, to close the financing.
Part of the problem also is that under the agreement we reached with Vietnam they are supposed to give us 200 megawatts at least, up to now, but they only gave us 170 megawatts, because Vietnam itself faces shortages.
The problem with the power from Thailand is a little bit different from Vietnam. It’s about technical constraints. The line that comes to our border is of small capacity, so to transmit more than 100 megawatts to Cambodia is difficult. …
Sarah Thust
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065532/Business/power-cuts-just-a-transitional-problem.html
As Phnom Penh Grows, So Does Its Sewage Problem
May 10th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Environment & Natural Resources, Industry, Infrastructure, Social Concerns
Since 1998, Phnom Penh’s population has doubled to more than 2 million. High-rise buildings have popped up in the city’s center and housing developments have been hastily erected.
Yet the city’s antiquated, decades-old drainage system has undergone little improvement in that time and experts say the rapid urban growth currently underway could outpace the drainage system’s ability to channel rain and the increasing amount of water out of Phnom Penh.
Although the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working with City Hall since 1999 to improve the drainage system, there is still no plan to install a wastewater treatment plant in order to prevent the vast amounts of raw sewage being pumped into the city’s lakes and waterways.
Adding further complications, City Hall has no complete underground plans of the drainage network and possesses limited means to ensure that piping is properly maintained. Authorities have no data on how much sewage the city currently produces.
…
JICA is currently constructing 20 km of additional piping in central Phnom Penh. Once a toilet is flushed, the wastewater travels down the pipes, through open canals or the underground drainage system and eventually arrives in Boeng Trabek, where morning glory and lotus plants partially purify the sewage through natural process.
Plants in the reservoir absorb the discarded water’s bacterial nutrients and break down the waste before it is funneled, black and fetid, through the Boeng Trabek pumping station. The Contents are then emptied into Boeng Tampoun and finally ejected into the Tonle Bassac and Tonle Sap rivers. …
“Phnom Penh City has been developing very fast and many commercial and industrial activities have been located in the downtown and peri-urban areas and the wastewater from these activates is generally high contamination,” said Seng Solsdy, a program officer from JICA, in an email. “With this situation, the construction of a waste-water treatment plant is very important for treating the wastewater from the city before discharging it to the river and to avoid impacts on the environment and people’s health.” …
Last year, alone the total value of approved construction projects nationwide increased by 72 percent to 2.11 billion, compared to 1.23 billion in 2011. …
Noun Rithy, CEO of Bonna Realty Group, agreed that many private developments often leave the issue of drainage as an afterthought. This is coupled with the fact that municipal authorities do very few of their own checks on the drainage provisions of new projects. …
Dene-Hern Chen and Kaing Menghun, P.1
www.cambodiadaily.com
New Kompong Thom Governor Vows to Give Land to Evictees
May 10th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Industry, International Relations, Land Tenure
The newly appointed Kompong Thom provincial governor on Tuesday promised more than 500 families who were forcefully evicted by a Vietnamese rubber plantation more than three years ago that they would be given replacement land to farm on early next month.
Security forces evicted villagers from Santuk district’s Kraya commune in December 2009 to make way for the Tan Bien-Kompong Thom Rubber Development Company, which was granted an 8,100-hectare land concession in the area. For the past three years, the families have been living at a relocation site with no farmland, about 5 km away. …
Food shortage is a major problem for the evicted villagers, said Nhem Sarath, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc. “This matter caused by the provincial authorities, for not helping the villagers on time, has caused them food shortage and some families have moved away,” he said.
Chhorn Chansy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-kompong-thom-governor%E2%80%88vows-to-give-land-to-evictees-23138/
Japanese bank to boost local investments
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Banking & Finance, Business & Commercial Development, Financial Services, Foreign Investment, News Source
Japanese Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) signed an agreement yesterday with local Canadia Bank to shore up Japanese growth in Cambodia and to demonstrate its confidence in the Kingdom’s financial sector.
BTMU’s managing executive officer, Takami Onodera, and Pung Kheav Se, chairman of Canadia Bank, yesterday signed the agreement with the intention of bringing more Japanese investors to Cambodia. …
Japanese investment totalled about $330 million last year, a big jump from about $75 million in 2011.
Furthermore, data from the Japanese Business Association of Cambodia show that there were 101 Japanese companies here at the end of 2012, an increase from 69 the year before. …
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065537/Business/japanese-bank-to-boost-local-investments.html
Delta Electronics eyes Cambodia expansion
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Foreign Investment, News Source
Delta Electronics (Thailand), one of the world’s leading producers of power supplies and electronic components, plans to expand to Cambodia and Myanmar, the Bangkok Post reported on Wednesday.
“There is no indication of a specific timeframe for the expansion, but the company sees these countries . . . as distributing channels of supply chain to other Asian and European countries,” the report said.
Asian Development Bank deputy country director Peter Brimble said, while he cannot speak for Delta about their reasons for moving to Cambodia, generally “regional automotive and electronics firms are looking to expand and spread their operational risk, including firms based in Thailand.” …
Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065533/Business/delta-electronics-eyes-cambodia-expansion.html
Cambodia Airlines to add planes
May 10th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Domestic Investment, News Source
Cambodia Airlines plans to spend $1.5 billion to acquire up to 22 planes, a move that might see the new airline’s eventual fleet size overtake that of national carrier Cambodia Angkor Air.
“We [will be] starting to deploy 16 to 22 aircraft immediately once it’s ready to fly,” said Ramon Ang, president of Philippine Airlines, in a report published yesterday by Manila-based news network Rappler. …
Low Wei Xiang
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051065531/Business/cambodia-airlines-to-add-planes.html
Ratanakkiri Hydropower Dams Deemed Economically Viable
May 9th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Forests, Hydroelectricity, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Two massive hydropower dams planned for the Mekong’s tributaries in Ratanakkiri province have been deemed economically viable by two feasibility studies conducted by a pair of giant Chinese conglomerates, a provincial industry, mines and energy official said yesterday. …
Despite the feasibility studies having been completed, local authorities yesterday said they have not received any clear information regarding the dams. Veun Sai district governor Chum Ngil said he had not been consulted about the dam’s feasibility despite a huge area being carved out of his district for a reservoir. …
Meach Mean, coordinator for the 3S Rivers Protection Network, an NGO advocating for villagers affected by the region’s planned dams, said the social and environmental impacts for the Srepok 3 and Sesan 3 dams would be huge. For example, about 40 villages will be affected by the Sean 3, he said. …
Kuch Naren and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ratanakkiri-hydropower-dams-deemed-economically-viable-23116/
Private property, public greed in Cambodia
May 9th, 2013, The Politico, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Exports, Farmland, International Relations, Land Tenure, Trade
Mark Moorstein knew little about Cambodia before he got involved in a lawsuit on behalf of land owners there. But as it’s turning out, the suit could end up affecting most every country in Asia.
Moorstein is a land-use lawyer in Northern Virginia who, like many lawyers, was looking for some pro-bono, charitable work to do on the side. …
Across Asia, almost every country is guilty of baldly seizing its citizens’ land without significant compensation and then selling it to corporations or developers, leaving the owners homeless and often destitute. …
Finally in 2001, Cambodia enacted a Land Law intended to curb these seizures. But like so many measures passed to mollify the Western donors who keep the government afloat, the government immediately began ignoring its own law. Now, as one major Cambodian human rights organization put it: “In Phnom Penh and the 12 provinces” around it “land-grabbing has affected an estimated 400,000 Cambodians since 2003, helping to create a sizable underclass of landless villagers with no means for self-sustenance.” …
It turned out that the land he [Mark Moorstein] focused on — two plots of about 25,000 acres each — is used to grow sugar cane, primarily. A wealthy and powerful Cambodian senator took possession of it after evicting residents from about 200 individual plots. Many of the evictees held identification cards the United Nations had given them when it set up a protectorate in Cambodia 20 years ago. Under the Land Law, that meant they held legal title to the property. …
Once the suit was filed, Tate & Lyle seemed to panic. Very quickly, it sold its entire sugar unit to American Sugar Refining, better known here in the United States for its name-brand product: Domino Sugar. That company is now the defendant, and when contacted for comment, the company declined.
But last Thursday, the company did file its response to the suit. It said Tate & Lyle had no knowledge of any prior ownership of the land in question. The villagers had no claim to the sugar cane grown on the land, even if they did previously own it, because they had not paid for the seeds or production costs. And finally, the defendants claimed, “The English court cannot adjudicate or call into question” matters of Cambodian law dealing with land concessions.
Nonetheless, the British court had already accepted the suit. The case is moving forward, and that all by itself is already encouraging many people. …
Joel Brinkley
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/lawyer-works-to-put-end-to-cambodia-land-grabbing-90985.html#ixzz2SlF9JBUm
Cambodian PM to visit Macau in September
May 9th, 2013, Macau Daily Times, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Foreign Investment, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Tourism, Trade
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will visit Macau in September to participate in the Second Global Tourism Economy Forum. Prime Minister Hun Sen called for more investment in the country by Chinese and Macau entrepreneurs, and direct flights between Cambodia and Macau.
According to Xinhua, the Prime Minister met with Edmund Ho Monday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, to discuss further expansion of bilateral ties in economics, trade and tourism. Ho is the former Macau Chief Executive and also a vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,
Speaking at the meeting at the Peace Palace, Edmund Ho, who is also chairman of the Global Tourism Economy Forum, said his visit to Cambodia was to further promote China-Cambodia relations and cooperation, particularly between Cambodia and Macau …
[Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance] Keat Chhon noted that from 1992 to present, China has provided USD2.7 billion in soft loans and grants to Cambodia for rehabilitating and building infrastructure. Keat Chhon and Edmund Ho also discussed ways to promote tourism.
Macau Daily Times Staff
http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/43622-cambodian-pm-to-visit-macau-in-september.html
Trade with Vietnam increases
May 9th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, Exports, Foreign Investment, Imports, Industry, International Relations, Trade
Bilateral trade between Cambodia and neighbouring Vietnam rose more than 10 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, data from the Vietnam Embassy in Phnom Penh showed.
Officials said cross-border trade facilitation by both countries significantly contributed to the growth. But they said the growth rate slowed down a little, as more competition developed from other importing countries.
The data showed total two-way-trade was worth $1.013 billion in the first quarter of the year, a 10.26 per cent increase from $918.694 million in the same period last year. …
The breakdown figure showed that in the first quarter of 2013, Cambodia’s total exports to Vietnam were valued at $221,153,942, a 9.9 per cent increase from $201,198,500 in the same period of 2012. The value of Vietnam’s exports to Cambodia reached $791,857,900, up 10.36 per cent from $717,495,323 in the same period last year. …
Cambodia mainly exported aquatic products and seafood, corn, dried tobacco, rubber latex, paddy rice and cashew nuts to Vietnam. The main products from Vietnam were all kinds of steel and made-from-steel products, confectionery, cereal products, garments, rubber products, vegetables and fruits, paper, metal products, machinery products, transportation vehicles and spare parts. …
I am really optimistic about the rise in bilateral trade volume which will certainly pave the way for the target of $5 billion set by the two governments by 2015.” [per Ministry of Industry Mines and Energy director general Meng Saktheara]
The data showed that total bilateral trade between both countries was worth $3.316 billion last year compared to $2.836 billion in the same period of 2011 – an increase of 17 per cent. …
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050965501/Business/trade-with-vietnam-increases-2013.html