Cambodian farmers prepare seedlings for their rice plantation at the paddy rice farm in Kandol village, Kampong Cham province, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Phnom Penh (Photo: AP/file photo)Phnom Penh 18 February 2010
Robert Carmichael, VOA
An investment group out of Australia has unveiled a $600 million plan to create a massive farm project in Cambodia. However, human rights workers are concerned that this deal, and others like it, will do little to help Cambodia's rural poor. Robert Carmichael in Phnom Penh has more.
BKK Partners, an Australian financial advisory firm, has a client that wants to buy 100,000 hectares of Cambodian land on which to grow crops such as rice, bananas, sugar cane, palm oil and teak.
BKK managing director Peter Costello was in Cambodia recently to discuss the idea. The client for the deal is a company called Indochina Gateway Capital Limited, which has ties to BKK.
The Phnom Penh Post newspaper recorded an interview with Costello, a former Australian finance minister, in which he explained why investing in food is so tempting. "I think agriculture is going to come back into its own as an investment in the decades that lie ahead and of course that's a great opportunity for Cambodia," he said.
The investors say the project will create jobs in an impoverished country, and help improve farming methods for the undeveloped - yet vital - agriculture sector.
But human rights workers say previous farm-industry deals have worked against ordinary Cambodians because of corruption, poor governance and often-violent land evictions.
Poor farmers often are kicked off the land and because of Cambodia's inadequate land-ownership records, often receive no compensation. So they wind up with no farm, no home and no way to start over.
Three years ago the United Nations human rights office in Phnom Penh said at least 59 land concessions totaling almost 1 million hectares had been granted to private companies for agriculture projects. It said that impoverished rural residents generally have lost out in such deals.
Government figures show it has approved 33 more projects since the U.N. report was released.
That does not include land concession granted to other countries. Qatar, Kuwait and South Korea have been pursuing concession deals here.
Matthieu Pellerin works on land rights for Cambodia human rights organization Licadho. He says corruption means that not only are the poor unprotected, the investors themselves may be at risk.
"Well-established system of corruption; a lack of checks and balances to ensure that poor communities, indigenous communities are not victimized by any kind of major agro-industry deals where sizable pieces of land are sold to private companies; the collusion of all state actors from the village up to the national level. All of these factors just make it very, very, very difficult if not impossible to abide by the book. I think that if one wants to really abide by the book, Cambodia in 2010 is not the place to come," he said.
BKK Partners' Costello says the investors plan to give five percent of the cash generated by the land deal to social projects in Cambodia.
But Pellerin says that may not benefit the poor, unless there is adequate oversight to make sure the money goes to community needs and not politician's pockets.
Opposition politician Son Chhay says if the BKK deal is done properly, it could mark a welcome change from past agreements with Chinese and Vietnamese agriculture companies. He says they do not invest in the country's people.
However, Son Chhay says it can be difficult to get information about land agreements. Until 2008 he headed parliament's foreign affairs committee, and he says members of parliament are blocked from examining contracts on such deals. "It's still the case that we are not able to get our hands on investment documents, and that's a cause for great concern," he said.
He says BKK must make the details of the deal public to ensure that rural poor do not lose out.
The issue of land seizures in Cambodia has drawn the attention of the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights. Surya Subedi on a recent visit asked the government to suspend land evictions until it put in place proper legal safeguards. But the government refused, saying to do so would hold up development.
Subedi says a new law on government land seizures is too vague. "For example, what do we mean by public interest? If land can be acquired in the public interest, how do you define it? Who defines it?," said Subedi.
Opposition politicians and activists for the poor say the risk is that the government will simply seize any land it wants, and those farming the land will have no legal protection.
BKK Partners, an Australian financial advisory firm, has a client that wants to buy 100,000 hectares of Cambodian land on which to grow crops such as rice, bananas, sugar cane, palm oil and teak.
BKK managing director Peter Costello was in Cambodia recently to discuss the idea. The client for the deal is a company called Indochina Gateway Capital Limited, which has ties to BKK.
The Phnom Penh Post newspaper recorded an interview with Costello, a former Australian finance minister, in which he explained why investing in food is so tempting. "I think agriculture is going to come back into its own as an investment in the decades that lie ahead and of course that's a great opportunity for Cambodia," he said.
The investors say the project will create jobs in an impoverished country, and help improve farming methods for the undeveloped - yet vital - agriculture sector.
But human rights workers say previous farm-industry deals have worked against ordinary Cambodians because of corruption, poor governance and often-violent land evictions.
Poor farmers often are kicked off the land and because of Cambodia's inadequate land-ownership records, often receive no compensation. So they wind up with no farm, no home and no way to start over.
Three years ago the United Nations human rights office in Phnom Penh said at least 59 land concessions totaling almost 1 million hectares had been granted to private companies for agriculture projects. It said that impoverished rural residents generally have lost out in such deals.
Government figures show it has approved 33 more projects since the U.N. report was released.
That does not include land concession granted to other countries. Qatar, Kuwait and South Korea have been pursuing concession deals here.
Matthieu Pellerin works on land rights for Cambodia human rights organization Licadho. He says corruption means that not only are the poor unprotected, the investors themselves may be at risk.
"Well-established system of corruption; a lack of checks and balances to ensure that poor communities, indigenous communities are not victimized by any kind of major agro-industry deals where sizable pieces of land are sold to private companies; the collusion of all state actors from the village up to the national level. All of these factors just make it very, very, very difficult if not impossible to abide by the book. I think that if one wants to really abide by the book, Cambodia in 2010 is not the place to come," he said.
BKK Partners' Costello says the investors plan to give five percent of the cash generated by the land deal to social projects in Cambodia.
But Pellerin says that may not benefit the poor, unless there is adequate oversight to make sure the money goes to community needs and not politician's pockets.
Opposition politician Son Chhay says if the BKK deal is done properly, it could mark a welcome change from past agreements with Chinese and Vietnamese agriculture companies. He says they do not invest in the country's people.
However, Son Chhay says it can be difficult to get information about land agreements. Until 2008 he headed parliament's foreign affairs committee, and he says members of parliament are blocked from examining contracts on such deals. "It's still the case that we are not able to get our hands on investment documents, and that's a cause for great concern," he said.
He says BKK must make the details of the deal public to ensure that rural poor do not lose out.
The issue of land seizures in Cambodia has drawn the attention of the U.N.'s special rapporteur on human rights. Surya Subedi on a recent visit asked the government to suspend land evictions until it put in place proper legal safeguards. But the government refused, saying to do so would hold up development.
Subedi says a new law on government land seizures is too vague. "For example, what do we mean by public interest? If land can be acquired in the public interest, how do you define it? Who defines it?," said Subedi.
Opposition politicians and activists for the poor say the risk is that the government will simply seize any land it wants, and those farming the land will have no legal protection.
15 comments:
This sounds very bad.
Khmers will lose lands.
Big farms are very dangerous for environment.
it depends on whether it's a long-term commitment or a short-term commitment. by the way, long-term commitment by investors in cambodia is better for cambodia. that said, it is ok for the rights group to voice their concerns, however, that doesn't mean investors should stop investing altogether, though. it's just they are looking out for the vulnerables as it is their job as an ngo. i think it is the matter of management, if they manage right, the very people who they wanted to help will benefit from jobs creation, economic growth, productivity diversification, etc in cambodia. i mean you have to look beyond for now. don't be discourage or let anyone try to discourage anyone from doing investment in cambodia, though. keep everything separate e.g. politics, business, NGOs, etc, etc... god bless.
well, naturally any kind of big investment faces resistance of some sort, especially since most things in cambodia is like starting from sketches i.e. not necessarily bad, however, it takes getting used to by the people, the country, the investors themselves, and so forth. also, take into consideration the cultural differences, the unprecedented large scale investment, not to mention the first time perhaps for foreigner to invest in such field in cambodia. i mean, it's going to required a lot of educatiion for everyone, local and investors alike, really! and despite these subtle obstacles, there is hope and there is light at the end of the tunnel, really! all investors have to do is follow the law, it will be ok eventually, really! god bless cambodia. like they say, isolation and ignorance are the real enemies of cambodia, i think!
khmer people can learn from investors! don't be paranoid about losing lands, jobs, etc... i think people in cambodia aren't used to having something new coming to cambodia everywhere. hey, cambodia will get used to it, really! the first time for everything is always hard, however, once the dust settled, we will see crystal clear blue water again.
Think about it. Cambodia’ land is owned by foreign company, but the work is done by poor Cambodia labors.
Farming of that magnitude will not require much laborers, but machine. So where is the job for the farmers? and please no more carrying 100lbs bag of rice on top of their shoulders.
To whom it may concern,
Please save deum Cha ( big tree and magnolia like, but have red flowers all over in the spring ), Deum Kor ( also big tree having white flowers that would turn into fruits. Each has the size of a cucumber and will stuff with cotton like puff when it matures), deum Dungkour ( another big tree with orange fruit the size of a tomato. This tree had black trunk. Perfect for future garden ), deum sdout ( it can turn into a very big tree and mostly green with fruit like bunch of grapes. This bitter tree has unique feature. Its young leaves are for eating as veggetable and its juice, extracting from a near mature leaves is used for treating high fever ). Please be careful when clearing the fields. They grow in the wild. Thank you kindly in advance for saving our precious trees!
Ordinary Khmer
02.18.10
All above arguments very good. But I want to tell you more why the rights activists concern about land grabbing because they reflect the past experiences that most of companies investment, they don't care about social responsibility, create job, building human resource, skill... just take and run!!!
We welcome the social responsible companies and investor who show good model or best practice in doing business. If that kind of companies or investors they will create jobs, building skill, provide technical assistance.
for example what do you prefer between BHP Billiton, giant mining company from Autralia and Vietnamese an Chinese Companies? Last year BHP withdrew from Cambodia for exploration bauxite in Mondolkiri by giving the pretext that they don't find commercial visibility of bauxite but when he withdraw, Vietnam and china come!!!! Those companies no interest to care about social responsibility, giving job, skill to local people. Again just take and run! especially the vietnam company they bring their people to work for them.
I wish any company come will not grab land from people (although the buy land from people), instead they build capacity of people, investing with Cambodians to produce products for them.
May Buddha Blessing Cambodians!
the least any company doing business in cambodia can do in the good spirit to help cambodia to train and give prior hiring to khmer people. well, of course, there are some exception to every rule, though, but don't make it a habit, make sure to hire and give khmer people the opportunity to work. that said, those khmer people shouldn't be complaining at what job they get and can do because, remember getting a job is good because like any job, you first get your foot in the door, then as you reach tenure, you move on up to different position, etc... so, stop be picky about what you do at first, a job is a job. be proud of it because you are getting paid for doing it, really! everybody starts somewhere, somehow, really. it's the same all over the world, really! try not to complain too much, unless you are being abused or treated unfairly, ok! wake up already
yes, and the key to moving on up is called competition; so, have a competitive frame of mind, ok! and get used to the business. be professional about it, you will go a long way, really!
Colonization all over again!
Cambodia has garden, but those trees which described by Ordinary Khmer are mostly unknown to the city people. Phnom Pehn needs one great garden dedicating to Cambodia's loveliest nature. Hopefully, those trees will find their way out to all over the world as well. What does it mean to Cambodia's economy? Got to think business & $$$ Cambodia.
Other people like the European and American love garden. During their spring season is the biggest show case of all.
Think of Deum Kor in place of cotton. Each has thousand of fruits and it's the fastest growing tree of all. In about 3 to 4 years, you will see this great big tree sprung up with flowers all over in magnificient white color. Beautiful indeed! and what do you do with their cotton? Stuff pillows, bedding and make clothing. Same with deum Sdout. People just don't know it, yet, but this medicine tree may be one day find its way to cure malaria, because that how some people got themself better during pol pot's time and Deum cha, a pointsettia look alike almost, what can read flowers this big do? come one! the chinese adore red and so do we. Advertise them and sell them during the chinese new year. There are over a billion chinese celebrating their NY around the world. Deum dangkour, KR boiled it leaves to dye their clothing into black. That's one feature and the least it can do, is to give it beauty to the world. It says I'm black and green. I'm also orange in my fruit. Don't I look great to your eyes? Of course it deos and where else can you find deum Dangkour? Only in Cambodia. Yes, please save our lovely trees.
Although, deum cha or phaka cha is very rare. Hopefully it's still around.
Also the sceene that you see on this KI news too will perhaps become the thing of the past. It's too humiliated and difficult for a human to do work in water field such as one above. Machine and machine are coming.
you mean phnom penh should have a botanical gardens so khmer people of the cities and people of the world can learn and appreciate the richness of khmer native trees, etc... that's a good idea to advocate the city of phnom penh to create a national botanical garden in the city property or somewhere where people can go to see or visit and learn more about the many khmer native trees in the country. that is an excellent idea to have the first khmer botanical garden, really! god bless cambodia.
Absolutely!. We just don't think and realize how important it is to have them around until it's gone.
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