The Cambodian Opposition parliamentarians urge the Government to improve the draft Sub-Decree on Economic Land Concessions as the current version contains major flaws, and fails to uphold the pledges by government and donors to improve governance of natural resources in Cambodia.

The Sub-Decree must take the opportunity to be inclusive. The exclusion of tree plantation from the scope of the Sub-Decree will allow to continue unabated the current large scale seizure of land from the rural poor and deforestation by unscrupulous companies and officials. These abuses are not adequately dealt with in the Land law and Forestry Law.

As the draft stands, the administrative power for the land concessions management is very concentrated in a single entity - the Contracting Authority. The Authority will be in charge of the whole procedure from initiating or accepting to approving concession projects with little, if any, checks and balances. The most troublesome aspect is that the draft provides the Authority an extensive discretionary power that can be easily abused.

The people’s participation in the process is somewhat allowed, but will be of little consequence. The draft requires “resettlement solution” for the people who are affected by a concession project, but it will not explicitly protect them from any forced resettlement.

The draft process of granting land concessions is far from being transparent, especially for “unsolicited” proposals that requires no public disclosure or independent verification. It provides a disclosure process that is dreadfully time-consuming, and does not reflect the Government’s commitment at the last Consultative Group meeting to disclosing promptly details of all economic concessions.

The Opposition parliamentarians stand ready to work with the Government for a Sub-Decree that will adequately embrace the concept of good governance for a sustainable development of the depleting national resources.

The SRP Parliamentarians
 

Further information, contact SRP Press Office
Sam Rithy Duong Hak, 012 802 753
Ung Bun-Ang, 012 605 999