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| People navigate a boat down the Sesan river, past Kbal Romea village, in Stung Treng province’s Sesan district last month. (Photo by: Adam Miller) |
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| Kith Meng's company stealing Khmer resources to sell to Vietnam? |
Wednesday, 01 June 2011
Adam Miller and Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post
“This is not about electricity for Cambodia. It is not about reducing the cost of electricity in Cambodia,” Baird said. “They are trying to maximise their profit. It’s not for the benefit of the country – these are private companies.”
An official from the Ministry of Environment admitted yesterday that electricity generated from the controversial Lower Sesan 2 Dam, a project touted as ensuring cheaper energy prices in Cambodia, would be exported to Vietnam.
The admission, made at an NGO-led workshop held with indigenous community representatives in Phnom Penh, came after a United States-based fisheries expert and consultant for conservation group International Rivers estimated that only about 1 percent of the dam’s capacity would be used locally, with the rest being sold to Cambodia’s eastern neighbour.
The proposed US$816 million, 400-megawatt dam is set to begin construction later this year in Stung Treng province by the Cambodia-Vietnam Hydropower Company, a joint venture that is 51-percent owned by the EVNI Joint Stock Company of Vietnam and 49-percent owned by local conglomerate the Royal Group.
Prach Sun, a secretary of state for the Ministry of Environment, initially said yesterday that the potential of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam to fulfill local energy needs outweighed the environmental and social damage it may inflict on indigenous communities.
“The development of the Lower Sesan 2 Dam will have some effects on natural resources, but electricity is the most important resource for the country and we must ensure the development of hydroelectric dams will be achieved,” he said at the event, which was attended by over 60 villager representatives from Rattanakiri and Stung Treng who say they will be affected by the project.
“The relocation of people and the price of electricity decreasing will contribute to the development of the country,” Prach Sun said.
Danh Serey, deputy director of the Environment Impact Assessment department at the Ministry of Environment, echoed these comments, stressing the need for increased energy supplies in Cambodia.
“Cambodia needs electricity, we need to develop electric areas, and hydropower is much better than other sources – this is why the Lower Sesan 2 Dam is so important,” he said.
Yet the forum took an unexpected turn when fisheries expert and NGO consultant Ian Baird said that there was no evidence to support the claims that the electricity generated would be used in Cambodia.
“The plan of the company is to export all of this electricity to Vietnam,” he said.
“So I don’t know why we are talking about this [electricity] as being used in Cambodia,” he said, adding that Cambodia will be unable to even make use of the 400MW of power from the project without a national electrical grid. “This is not about electricity for Cambodia. It is not about reducing the cost of electricity in Cambodia,” Baird said. “They are trying to maximise their profit. It’s not for the benefit of the country – these are private companies.”
The comments prompted one representative from the Ministry of Environment to quickly change his stance.
Danh Serey later claimed that exporting the electricity to Vietnam was the second step of the process, after the energy needs of local communities in northeast Cambodia had been met.
“The Ministry of Environment has observed the situation closely. Only the left-over electricity from the use of local people will be sold to Vietnam,” he said following the event.
Baird said only a miniscule amount of the energy generated would be used locally.
“Maybe a very small amount of electricity they might use around Stung Treng, but it would be less than 1 percent,” he said, adding that the province could likely all be powered off of only 1MW of energy.
“It’s obvious the power is not for Cambodia because there is too much and there is no way to distribute it,” he said.
“The question is, what benefit is Cambodia getting? What is the Cambodian government getting in terms of taxes or concession fees?” he continued.
Royal Group Chairman Kith Meng declined to comment, referring questions to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy. Royal Group chief financial officer Mark Hanna could not be reached for comment yesterday.
In a statement released in April, Kith Meng said that the project “will contribute greatly to the continued economic development of Cambodia, ensuring a reliable, moderately-priced supply of electricity”.
12 comments:
Fuck you kiet Meng , i never like you? go back to you home and fuck your crazy mama .
today youn make you slave alive but next day youn make skinny and after that you have nothing all most die but you are still open eye.
this is youn style to all his slave.
boooshit keit meang fuckmom
This kiet Meng is a super crooks. I have no respect for him or his corrupted business in Khmer. He got AIDS from fucking around and It will killed him soon. so dont stick around this guys. He the one that organized all paper for Hun Sen to signed and make commission. Breaking all business law in Cambodia...No Ethics
The country is good, the majority of its people are good people but they are silent and not well-informed and are also too poor thus too busy looking after their own lives and children's.
The few bad ones including the PM and his cronies in government and business communities suck everything they can for themselves with no consideration for the future of the country and its people and they are committing this crime in the name of building the country!
I think they are building their personal wealth at the expense of Cambodia.
Anet Khmer
i think it is ok to build the dam, however sell it more to cambodia as cambodia needs more electricity than viet/youn, really! the last i read, cambodia have shortage of electricity for our growing population and development, etc, so, i think they should sell the electricity to cambodia more than to viet/youn or vietnam, whatever you want to call it, ok! that's all.
12:26AM! why don't you sell to them?
Kiet Meng and others like him are nothing but parasite are sucking the Khmer blood, Khmer natural resources and khmer culture. These people are just simply bad. And they are stupid too because they should know all ill gotten wealth will be legally removed and give back to Khmer- soon or later. You can not be enjoying ill got wealth forever.
chea puok kbatcheat del ban bomplanh srok khmer
You talk is good, but I have never see anything in either action or result.
How can you export shit to outside when there is not enough shit for even the capital city of Cambodia, let alone to share shit for the whole country.
the above must be siem thugs talk about jealousy with cambodia, you know! cambodia will always be cambodia, really! get used to it, ok!
Cambodia should become Yuonese / Vietnamese slaver more better.
The article, don't me laugh, nobody manage to make one work for Cambodia yet and suddenly they talk about exporting, Hahahahaha.
Great article.
Big Brother Vietnam
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