City on a hill sparks little talk [-Another project by Hun Xen's crony Xok Kong]

An elaborate scale model, featuring hotels and hundreds of houses, shows what Bokor Mountain is intended to look like when development is completed in about 15 years. The model is housed in a showroom on the mountain, where a casino is set to open in about two weeks. Photo by Derek Stout

A construction worker cuts steel rebar in front of the Thansur Bokor Highland Resort on Bokor Mountain. Photo by Derek Stout

Tourists snap pictures in front of a new Buddha statue that is nearing completion. Photo by Derek Stout

Labourers use wire, rocks and steel rebar to construct barriers, meant to protect against landslides, along the road leading to the top of Bokor Mountain. Photo by Derek Stout

Along the road that curves its way up Bokor Mountain, large swaths of densely forested areas have been cleared. Photo by Derek Stout

Friday, 16 March 2012
Shane Worrell and Phak Seangly
The Phnom Penh Post

A casino complex on top of Kampot province’s Bokor Mountain will open in less than two weeks – but environmental groups are strangely quiet about the effects the development, the size of a small city, could have on Cambodia’s natural heritage.

The complex, in the Preah Monivong National Park, included a casino and hotel and would have a “soft opening” late this month before an official opening mid-year when construction was completed, Thansur Bokor Highland Resort chief executive Dr Ngin Banal said.

“Our primary target market is the greater Mekong region, including Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Our secondary market is southern China and Korea,” he told the Post this week.

In January, 2008, the government granted the Sokha Hotel Group, owned by Sokimex Investment Group, a 99-year lease for the US$1 billion development.

Based on the original plans, the project will also include a 700-room, 18-storey five-star hotel, as well as conference rooms, bars, wedding facilities and two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses.

A showroom halfway up the mountain displays a detailed scale model of how the national park will look in about 15 years, when hundreds of houses and villas will stretch back from the mountains southern edge.

The good and bad of Cambodian investment

Sep 15, 2007
By Roderick Brazier
Asia Times (Hong Kong)

"...the Cambodian government and society more broadly could get far more value from it if the concession were competitively tendered, rather than negotiated in secret..."

PHNOM PENH - What's happening today on Bokor Mountain in Cambodia speaks volumes about what is good and bad about new investment in Cambodia in 2007. Bokor Mountain is just 37 kilometers from the sleepy Cambodian riverside town of Kampot, yet the journey to the 1,000-meter peak takes more than two and a half hours by sport-utility vehicle.

The steep, winding road was built by French engineers in the 1920s, and not a centimeter of it has seen a road-maintenance crew since. Today vehicles climbing the mountain crawl over an uneven surface of large, loose stones, deep ruts cut by rushing rainwater, and mesa-like vestiges of the bitumen that covered the original road. The result is a bone-jangling, exhausting journey.

Once reaching the broad, boggy plateau at Bokor's summit, the visitor is greeted by one of the world's strangest sights: a casino, a Catholic church, and a guesthouse brood in the misty gloom. Built by the French, all are long-abandoned. Left to the dank elements, the buildings are coated in dense, rust-colored moss.

Inside, they are strewn with debris: glass, broken floor tiles, lengths of electrical wire. A wall in the ballroom wears a sinister cluster of bullet holes at chest height: the Khmer Rouge were particularly active here. A metal sign resting on the floor warns tourists not to sleep in the casino.

A Cambodian business conglomerate called the Sokimex Group recently announced its intention to repair the neglected road and renovate the hilltop casino and hotel at Bokor. A group spokesman assured that the original French buildings would be renovated, not demolished, as part of the ambitious and costly project. In addition to the renovations, insiders in Phnom Penh talk of cable cars, golf courses, and helipads.

Sokimex was established in the early 1980s by Sok Kong, and is today one of Cambodia's biggest business groups. Closely associated with the ruling Cambodian People's Party, Sokimex's mainstay is the distribution and retail sale of petroleum. Notable among its many other interests is the lucrative concession to collect entry fees at the world-famous Angkor temples.

After decades of misery and instability, observers are cheered by the prospect of bold, imaginative investments that will create many jobs for ordinary Cambodian people and spur progress. And although Western tourists get a kick from visiting the unearthly Bokor ruins, who can blame Cambodians for wanting to fix up this creepy vestige of war and colonialism?

The Bokor property sits in the heart of Preah Monivong National Park, meaning it belongs to the state, not Sokimex. The casino project can only start if the government awards Sokimex a time-bound concession to redevelop and manage Bokor. In exchange for this privilege, Sokimex will likely pay the government an annual fee. As often is the case in Cambodia, these arrangements are being concluded without competition, and in secret. The fee will likely be revealed to the public only after the deal has been struck, if at all.

Sokimex's concession to manage the Angkor temples was awarded in a similarly opaque manner. The International Monetary Fund has repeatedly urged the government to tender the lucrative Angkor concession, but closed-door negotiations remain the preferred approach. The bad habit is being repeated in Bokor.

Why does it matter how such concessions are awarded?

The trouble is that in the absence of a competitive tender, the true value of such concessions cannot be known, and the state could miss out on valuable revenue. Secret negotiations also create lucrative rent-seeking opportunities that again deprive the state coffers of valuable revenue. Soliciting a range of redevelopment proposals would give maximum value to the state, and a well-designed tender could encourage environment- and heritage-sensitive plans that will not just attract tourists, but bring employment and business opportunities to a poor corner of the country.

The Bokor Mountain project is a worthy idea, and an experienced group such as Sokimex may well be the best party to implement it. But the Cambodian government and society more broadly could get far more value from it if the concession were competitively tendered, rather than negotiated in secret.

Roderick Brazier is The Asia Foundation's country representative in Cambodia.

Plane crash wreckage found [- No survivors found]

Jun 27, 2007
Reuters

All 22 passengers and crew aboard a tourist plane that crashed into jungle-clad mountains in Cambodia are dead.

"According to the reports I have received from the ground, all 22 on the plane are dead. Nobody survived," cambodian government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said on Wednesday.

"We are going to carry the bodies out of the area."

The plane, which crashed on Monday, was carrying 13 South Korean and three Czech passengers, as well as a Russian pilot, two Cambodian co-pilots, a Cambodian engineer and two flight attendants.

The plane vanished from radar screens on Monday during a flight from Siem Reap, home to the famed 800-year-old Angkor Wat temple complex, to the coastal resort of Sihanoukville.

Also on board the plane operated by Phnom Penh-based carrier PMT Air were a Russian captain, two Cambodian co-pilots, a Cambodian engineer and two flight attendants.

The search, which Prime Minister Hun Sen supervised himself, was hampered by heavy rain which turned heavily forested mountains slippery and difficult to move through and limited visibility from helicopters.

Hun Sen offered a $5,000 reward to anyone finding the wreckage.

Air services between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville reopened in January 2007 after a prolonged hiatus during Cambodia's civil war.

The resumption of the internal route was touted as another sign of the former French colony's accelerating recovery from the destruction wrought by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during their four years in power from 1975 to 1979.

Cambodia attracted more than 1.7 million tourists last year, most of them drawn to Angkor Wat.

No survivors in Cambodia crash: official

June 26, 2007
By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press Writer

KAMPOT, Cambodia — Search teams said Wednesday there were no survivors from a plane that crashed in southern Cambodia early this week with 22 people aboard, including South Korean and Czech tourists, officials said.

The Russian-made An-24 aircraft operated by PMT Air crashed Monday during a storm while flying between Siem Reap — site of the famed Angkor Wat temple complex — and Sihanoukville on the southern coast.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith announced that all aboard had been killed hours after the searchers located the crash site high on a forested mountain.

"All have died. It is confirmed," he said.

Thirteen South Korean and three Czech tourists were on board, as well as five Cambodian airline employees and a Russian co-pilot, officials said.

A helicopter spotted the crash site for the first time early Wednesday morning after some 1,000 soldiers and police mounted an urgent two-day search by land and air through treacherous jungle in rainy monsoon weather.

The plane crashed northeast of Bokor Mountain in Kampot province, according to provincial Deputy Governor Khoy Khun Huor, who said he saw the crash site from a helicopter. He said the wreckage did not appear to have been on fire.

More than a dozen family members of some of the South Korean passengers arrived in Phnom Penh from Seoul late Tuesday to await news of the fate of their relatives.

Ly Thuch, a disaster management official, said the Cambodian government will pay for their accommodation while they are in the country.

PMT Air is a small Cambodia airline that began flights in January from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville, a new domestic route launched by the government to spur the country's burgeoning tourism industry.

Sar Sareth, the airline's director, said Tuesday that he did not know what year the crashed plane was built, but added that it was in "good condition" before taking off from Siem Reap on Monday.

"It was always in compliance with flight technical and safety procedures. But we cannot say anything yet (about the cause) because information is on the flight recorder," he said.

Wreckage of Cambodian tourist plane found [- Hope for survivors slim]

June 27, 2007
AFP

The wreckage of a chartered tourist plane that disappeared in southern Cambodia three days ago was found early today, officials said, adding that all 22 aboard were most likely dead.

"We found the crashed plane ... on top of Bokor Mountain, but we cannot get there now," said Khov Khun Huor, deputy governor of Kampot province.

"Maybe it was hard to survive," he added.

The plane disappeared three days ago en route from the Angkor temple town of Siem Reap to the seaside resort of Sihanoukville.

Crashed Cambodia plane 'is found'

Wednesday, 27 June 2007
BBC News

The wreckage of a plane which crashed in Cambodia on Monday with 22 people on board has been found, say officials.

A helicopter located the crash site northeast of Bukor mountain in Kampot province, said the deputy governor.

There is no word on whether there are any survivors among the passengers, mainly South Korean tourists, or the Cambodian and Russian crew.

The plane lost contact in bad weather, and heavy rain and thick clouds have made the search operation difficult.

"We have located the crash site. It's high on the mountain," search pilot Tep Sitha told the Reuters news agency from the air.

------
NATIONALITIES ON BOARD
13 South Koreans
Five Cambodians (crew)
Three Czechs
Russian pilot
------

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had offered a $5,000 (£2,500) reward to anyone who could help find the crash site.

The AN-24 plane had been making a short scheduled flight from Siem Reap to the coastal town of Sihanoukville when it disappeared from radar screens on Monday morning.

Aviation authorities have suggested that bad weather might have played a part in the crash.

Thirteen of the passengers were members of a South Korean tour group who were heading for the beach after spending time at the Angkor temples.

Three Czechs and the five-member Cambodian crew were also on board, as well as a Russian pilot.

The PMT Air service has only been running since January and tourism officials had hoped it would encourage visitors to spend longer in the country, our correspondent says.

Some 250,000 tourists visited Cambodia from South Korea last year - more than any other nationality.

Over 20 dead in Cambodia air crash

Passengers leave a PMT Air Russian-made AN-24 at the Rattanakiri, Cambodia, airport on Jan. 20, 2007. Officials say a chartered plane from the airline has crashed in Cambodia with at least 20 on board feared dead. (AP Photo)

Mon, 25 Jun 2007
Suy Se
AFP

A charter plane carrying 22 people between two popular Cambodian tourist destinations crashed on Monday in a mountainous region in the south of the country, aviation officials said.

The Russian-made AN-24 left the Angkor temple town of Siem Reap at around 10am (0300 GMT) and vanished off radar screens 37 minutes later, said Keo Sivorn, director of operations at the Cambodian Aviation Secretariat.

It was headed for the southern seaside resort town of Sihanoukville, about 250 kilometres from the capital Phnom Penh, he said.

The secretariat's chief of staff, Him Sarun, said the plane was carrying 13 South Koreans, three Czech nationals and a Russian pilot, along with five Cambodian crew.

"The plane has crashed between Bokor Mountain and Kamchay Mountain," he told AFP.

"We don't know how many are dead or how many survived."

Military officials told AFP that villagers described a plane crashing into a mountain and bursting into flames. Few other details are known.

Kampot province deputy police chief In Chiva said the wreck was believed to be near Kamchay Mountain, as conservationists working there told police they had seen the aircraft crash.

"The area is heavily forested and the sky is dark (with rain) so it is hard for us to search. We have not found any pieces of the plane yet," he told AFP.

"We have been informed that the plane crashed there but we are not sure."

As the weather worsened and night fell, military officials called back two helicopters that were looking for the crash site.

But rescuers, including soldiers and police continued searching deep forests into the evening, using scooters to travel along dark jungle paths near where the plane is thought to have gone down.

The plane was operated by PMT Air, which runs flights between Phnom Penh and some provincial capitals, but has had at least three accidents or in-flight emergencies over the past two years.

In one, engine failure forced a plane to turn back mid-flight, while another plane ran off the runway as it landed because it was overloaded with passengers, officials said at the time.

PMT opened a route between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville in January, aviation officials said, in a bid to encourage more tourist traffic between the two cities.

"We cannot find the plane right now, so we cannot say anything," said a PMT official who did not want to be named.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had identified all 13 South Koreans, according to the Yonhap news agency.

"The 13 South Koreans are seen as tourists recruited by a tour agency," a ministry official said, adding that two children and two teenagers were on board the doomed plane.

The ministry said it dispatched three diplomats in Cambodia to the suspected crash site. It also said it would soon send a six-member fact-finding mission to Cambodia.

South Koreans made up the largest percentage of the 1.7 million foreign visitors to Cambodia in 2006.

Cambodia's last major air disaster occurred 10 years ago, when a Vietnam Airlines flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh crashed in heavy monsoon rain as it attempted to land at the capital's international airport.

Sixty-four people were killed in the crash. Only two infants, a Thai boy and a Vietnamese boy, survived.