Property rights threatened, NGOs claim [-FAO's shenanigans in Cambodia in collusion with Hun Xen's regime?]

Tuesday, 24 July 2012
David Boyle and May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

A draft agricultural land law threatens to eliminate property rights and effectively remove all limitations on the size of economic land concessions, a coalition of civil society groups said in a statement released.

The draft of The Law on the Management and Use of Agricultural Land, which was formulated with the help of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, also contains criminal sanctions that impose jail terms of up to one year.

The FAO has said that controversial agricultural land leases that had no apparent limitations in size had been removed from a new draft formulated in April, but yesterday declined to provide an updated copy of the law, which the government has also so far declined to circulate.

But the continued existence of Agricultural Development Areas in the draft law would allow the government to force farmers to switch the crops they are growing if an undefined majority of landholders in the area agree to the plan, said Licahdo director Naly Pilorge.

“This is another law that could potentially allow the government to arbitrarily award land without consulting the affected people,” she said, adding that the ADAs were effectively a form of forced collectivisation.

Bank told to reconsider funding if draft passed

Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Mary Kozlovski
The Phnom Penh Post

The Asian Development Bank should consider reassessing its funding to the Kingdom if the government passes a controversial draft NGO law in its current form, nine international rights groups wrote in a letter to ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda.

The ADB should convince the government to “withdraw the draft law”, organisations including Human Rights Watch and Global Witness wrote.

“The implications of the third version of the draft law could not be more serious because it requires all associations and organisations to register before they are permitted to conduct any activities in Cambodia,” the statement says.

At a conference in the capital last month, an Interior Ministry official said that mandatory registration had been removed from the latest draft, which has yet to be publicly released.

Representatives from the ADB could not be reached for comment late yesterday.

ADB Provides Further Funds for Rail Link

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
17 December 2009

The Asian Development Bank will provide $42 million in loans to the Cambodian government to help it revitalize its railway and boost a Southeast Asian trade network, officials said Wednesday.

“It’s a supplemental loan for the railroad,” said Kamayana Putu, ADB’s Cambodia director.

The bank has put a total investment of $84 million in the project, which is expected to cost at least $141 million.

The latest round of financing will make it possible for freight trains to begin running between Kampot province, near the Vietnamese border, to Phnom Penh, in 2011.

The entire rail system is expected to be functioning by 2013, with the eventual rehabilitation of 600 kilometers of rail all the way to Thailand, including segments damaged during Cambodia’s decades of civil strife.

The new funding will also go toward the development of a modern maintenance facility outside Phnom Penh.

“This upgraded rail network will position Cambodia as a true sub-regional transport hub, creating new jobs and business opportunities in the manufacturing and logistic services sectors,” Peter Broch, a transportation economist in the ADB’s Southeast Asia department, said in a statement.

Cambodian road network gets 40.8 mln usd in funding for maintenance - ADB

01.22.08

MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will provide 40.8 mln usd along with its development partners to help Cambodia maintain roads managed by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and improve the capability of the ministry in managing and maintaining its road network.

The bank said ADB will extend a 6 mln usd loan to the Road Asset Management Project. Australia will provide a 4.8 mln usd grant through the Australian Agency for International Development to be managed by ADB, it said.

The International Development Association of the World Bank Group will help fund the project through a 30 mln usd credit line. The Cambodian government will complete project funding by providing 17.55 mln usd, the ADB said.

The project will finance periodic maintenance for about 950 kilometres of roads managed by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to help fill the gap between road maintenance requirements and available funds, the bank said.