Cambodia's islands up for grabs [-A country for sale ... down to the last island, if it is not given to Vietnam yet]

A view from the pristine beaches on Koh Rong island, off Sihanoukville. The island is one of 28 in Cambodia earmarked for development. Photograph: Will Baxter/Phnom Penh Post

Friday, 17 August 2012
May Titthara and David Boyle
The Phnom Penh Post

Some of the most audacious Cambodian island developments have been connected to shady individuals, including convicted pedophile Alexander Trofimov, who allegedly drove to his resort on Koh Pos from prison regularly before he was pardoned by the king last year.

Adhoc’s list of soon-to-be concessionaires includes a veritable who’s who of controversial development including LYP Group (Koh Kong Knong), TTY Corporation Co, Ltd (Koh Koan) and Try Pheap Company (Koh Tonsay), all firms that have been involved in major land disputes.

More than 180,000 hectares on 28 of Cambodia’s 64 islands were reclassified as state private property for 31 companies seeking land concessions between 2008 and 2010, government sub-decrees reveal.

The reclassification sub-decrees, compiled by investigators at the rights group Adhoc, pave the way for firms to secure 99-year leases to develop hotels, resorts and casinos, mostly on islands dotted across the coasts of Preah Sihanouk, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong province.

They include already popular destinations off Preah Sihanouk and Kep province such as Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island), Koh Russey (Bamboo Island), Koh Rong, Koh Rong Somleom and Koh Takhieo, as well as far more obscure enclaves.

Experts in the investment and conservation communities have told the Post that on top of these land reclassifications, many of which have since gained final approval, plots have been earmarked for development by private firms on almost every single island in the Kingdom.

Cambodia's "Asian Riviera" ... courtesy of Hun Xen's crony and at the expense of Cambodia

Kith Meng, Hun Xen's crony and owner of the Royal Group

Cambodia to have 'Asian Riviera.'

Wednesday, 1st September 2010
Source : HVS Internmational

The Royal Group (TRG), a Cambodian corporation in property and infrastructure development, has unveiled a masterplan to develop Koh Rong into Asia's first environmental resort destination.

The plan, which aims to transform the island into the next ‘Asian Riviera’, will cover elements such as infrastructural development of an airport, a marina, a port and roads, as well as resorts, hotels, golf courses, shopping, restaurants, bars and entertainment venues.

TRG has been granted a 99-year lease for the development, which has a five-year schedule for the first phase and eventual completion in 25 years’ time.

Gold Coast?

Martin Kaye

11.24.08
Ron Gluckman
Forbes (USA)

"Over the past two years nearly all of Cambodia's five dozen islands have been leased, and much of the shoreline has been carved up for huge concessions."

If Martin Kaye gets his way, the Cambodian-Vietnamese coast will be known as the Indochine Riviera.

Martin Kaye has a name for the barren beaches and empty tropical islands that line the Cambodian and western Vietnamese coast. He touts this 125-mile stretch as the Indochine Riviera and envisions a sun-drenched playground for jet-setters and holidaymakers from around the world. "Just look across the border in Thailand, at Phuket and Ko Samui," he says. "It's not a question of if, but when." The Hong Kong real estate investor plans on being right in the middle of all this construction: He could be the Donald Trump of Asia's next great resort strip.

Kaye has lots of company. Investment groups from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Russia and France have raced to stake claims in what has become a gold rush. Over the past two years nearly all of Cambodia's five dozen islands have been leased, and much of the shoreline has been carved up for huge concessions. Property values have boomed around Kep, a seaside destination for the French through the 1960s, before the rise of the Khmer Rouge riddled the charming seaside villas with bullet holes that are still visible. Bigger gains are reported around Sihanoukville, the site of several beach resorts and the country's main port, after a $30 million revamp of the airport two years ago. "That was the trigger to all the growth," says Matthew Rendall, partner at the Phnom Penh law firm of Sciaroni & Associates and the country's leading land lawyer. "After that, the entire coast really took off."

Not that you could tell by looking around. Sihanoukville remains a grungy coastal town with a slew of casinos and only one high-end hotel. Yet billboards heralding planned villa projects run for miles up and down the coast.

In the past year Kaye has won the right to build vast resort communities on the two biggest chunks of this coast, though he also hasn't built anything yet. But in the Ho Chi Minh City office of Kaye's company, the Millennium Group, there are lots of plans being drawn up. Don Taylor, who designed many of Phuket's resorts, shows off the master plan for Dai Beach: 1,500 condominiums, 700 luxury villas, two golf courses, 20 hotels and resorts, a marina and lots of shops, all sprawling across 1,335 acres at the northern end of Phu Quoc. Part of Vietnam, Phu Quoc is the largest island in the Gulf of Thailand. Kaye sealed the deal for the project in April after years of discussion and plenty of local liquor consumed with the island's village chiefs.

At the time, investors were focused on Phu Quoc after Vietnam unveiled new policies to promote foreign land ownership and promised to expand the airport for international use. But the expansion has been delayed, along with many of the plans for resorts. "Until the infrastructure is in place, especially the new airport, I am happy to sit," says John Goodyear, who runs a boutique resort in Tasmania and has leased land for another on Phu Quoc. Indeed, with the recent slowing of the Vietnamese economy, money is now moving across the border into Cambodia, says Bernard Lang, of First Indochina Group, a Vietnam consultancy. "Cambodia offers a fantastic investment environment."

Kaye's other site is in Cambodia, so he has horses in both races. He found it quite by accident. Parked on a deserted beach in Phu Quoc in October of last year, he was enjoying a surfing break after winning the initial agreement for the land. But like any Hong Kong wheeler-dealer on holiday, he couldn't resist thinking ahead to the next deal. Soon he was browsing the Web. Using Google Earth, he spied an island only 40 miles away, big as Hong Kong island, but a place he'd never heard of or seen on maps. Chartering a helicopter, Kaye was soon circling above Koh Rung, Cambodia's biggest island, his eyes bugging out of his head. Even now his pulse accelerates as he describes how he soaked up the sight of Koh Rung's emerald hills, teeming jungle and mile after mile of crystalline white beaches. "This was uncharted territory," he recalls. "Totally pristine."

But not for long. In September Kaye won a commitment from the Cambodian government for a project that makes his gargantuan Phu Quoc development seem minuscule. He now controls the entire island and plans luxury resorts by the score, an airport, parks, even a university. The total investment could top $12 billion and play out over decades. "This is the chance to do Phuket or Ko Samui all over again, but do it right this time," says Kaye, sweating profusely between cigarette breaks at his office in Phnom Penh. "This is a chance to do something truly special."

Kaye is scurrying to find $200 million in financing to start on Koh Rung, but he's running headfirst into the global credit crunch. "Real estate debt financing has dried up," he says. He's focusing his fundraising in the Middle East, but it's proving a tough slog. His Cambodian partner for the project, Phnom Penh tycoon Kith Meng, says there's interest in Kuwait, Dubai and Qatar, and Kaye says there's also interest from Chinese and Japanese investors and British funds. "People will come to Cambodia because this is where you can double, even triple, your money," says Kith, whose Royal Group is involved in hotels, telecoms, banking and development.

Kaye says the financial crisis could set the project back by six to nine months. For now he expects to start clearing the site by the third quarter of next year, "but if it drifts into 2010, that's no problem; this is a 20-year project and we want to do it right." He doesn't think the crisis will have a long-term impact on his two Indochine projects: "Tourism growth has been phenomenal, and that will continue."

The 41-year-old Kaye comes from a real estate family. Born in Hong Kong, he grew up yachting: "That where the concept of mixing real estate and my love of sailing really started me with resorts," he says. After climbing the ladder as a young sales agent, he set off on his own in 1999, forming his Hong Kong firm, and became involved in several projects on Phuket.

As Kaye gears up to develop his islands, other projects are springing up along the coast. In September the Sokha Hotel Co., which runs Sihanoukville's only five-star hotel, the Sokha Beach Hotel, broke ground on a 500-room resort on the town's Ochheuteal Beach. Sokha is also behind the $1 billion renovation of the Bokor Mountain Lodge, which will add a pair of golf courses and five-star resorts to an old French colonial hill station overlooking the coast.

Developer Has ‘Dream’ Plans for Island

Koh Rong could see millions of dollars in infrastructure development, as a Phnom Penh developer eyes the island.

By Vohar Cheat, VOA Khmer
Original report from Sihanoukville
12 November 2008

A Phnom Penh developer hopes to bring $200 million in infrastructure before investing in a resort on the island of Koh Rong, one of Sihanoukville's poorest administrative areas, which is currently cut off from the mainland and lacking many services.

The Phnom Penh company Royal Group has signed a 99-year lease agreement with the government to develop Koh Rong, with a total expected budget of $2 billion.

Jacov Montross, business and finance manager of Royal Group, said the company plans to spend as much as $200 million on road construction, sewage systems, air and sea ports, clean water, electric power and village infrastructure.

"Before any hotels or casinos or that kind of thing is put on the island, the infrastructure needs to be put on the island first," he said. "We would like to see the infrastructure start to go on the island within the next six months."

Currently, only a handful of tourists visit the remote island each day.

Montross said infrastructure development could take up to 20 years to finish, after which Royal Group plans dozens of hotels and casinos, a golf course and an airport large enough to handle Boeing 737s and direct flights from China, Japan and India.

A first-class hospital will need to be built for tourists, and islanders could be trained in hospitality and tourism. In all, the project could employ 120,000 people.

Duch Sokhom, chief of Koh Rong commune, implored the employment of the island's many fishermen, who are facing "devastating" shortages of marine life.

Montross said priority would be given to the islanders, especially for infrastructure construction. Better jobs would be available in the future, he said, but people must be trained.

Sok Phon, chief of cabinet for Sihanoukville, said that besides Koh Rong, other islands are being developed, such as Koh Puos and Koh Dekol. Sihanoukville administration encompasses the increasingly popular coastal town and 22 islands.

Royal Group is still looking for outside investors.

"Right now it is a dream," Montross said. "It is a dream that we would like to make into reality."

Islanders Begin Protection of Their Waters

Koh Rong's residents have joined together in a fishing community to save coastal waters, like this river, and sea habitat.

By Vohar Cheat, VOA Khmer
Original report from Sihanoukville
11 November 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

The 437 families living on Koh Rong have established a fishing community to preserve 5,000 hectares of ocean and rivers, hoping to protect the aquatic creatures and plants that have made life on this island sustainable—and could even make tourism here prosperous.

The community’s chief, Yun Mon, said the group was established two months ago to stop illegal fishing, after a survey by Sihanoukville’s fishery department showed a major depletion of the once-rich sea life around the island.

“The survey shows that a day’s catch for a fisherman on average dropped from 30 kilograms last year to 15 kilograms this year,” he said, adding that the livelihood of Koh Rong islanders is reliant on the sea.

The decline in marine life was due to an increase in local populations, illegal fishing and mangrove clearance on the coast, he said.

Choung Sam At, a Sihanoukville fishery official, said the boundary of the Koh Rong fishing community was designed around water areas up to 20 meters in depth, which are home to seaweed species, reef and a variety of fish that may prove to be attractive to divers.

“It is necessary to protect them; the seaweed and reefs are attractive for tourist divers,” he said. “Where there are seaweed and reefs, there are combinations of colorful fish.”

The areas are protected from big commercial fishing, but limited catches on a small scale or through traditional means are allowed for the islanders.

Illegal fishing remains a problem. Trawlers, which are definitely banned from the 20-meter waters, are often seen drifting in at night.

However, concrete pilings up to a meter in diameter have been laid underwater as a deterrent, which is helping keep the bigger boats out of the protected areas Choung Sam At said.

The preservation efforts could take between five and 15 years to renew the richness of the sea areas, he said.

Ung Nit, deputy chief of Koh Rong commune, said the percentage of fishermen on the island had dropped from about 70 percent of the population of 1,400 to 30 percent. Some fishermen had given sold off their tackle and boats to jobs as construction workers or woodsmen. Those who have kept fishing sell their catch in Sihanoukville markets. (Duch Sokhom, chief of the commune, disputed the decline, saying around 70 percent of the islanders remain fishermen.)

Koh Rong fishermen hold out hope that an island resort development planned by Phnom Pen’s Royal Group will bring them better business.

“I think I will get more benefits if I sell my fish to the company here, rather than going to [Sihanoukville],” said Si Sanh, a 39-year-old islander. “I keep losing 10 liters of gasoline by piloting my long-tailed boat to Sihanoukville to sell my fish.”

Jacov Mentross, business and finance manager for the Royal Group, said the preservation work by the fishing community will rehabilitate some of the marine life. He expects the new resort to buy fish from the locals.

About 120,000 people will begin working on the hotel and casino project, he said.

“A lot of people on the island are fishermen, and they may chose to continue to be fishermen,” he said. “Then it will be great for us…. Instead of selling their catches at Sihnoukville, there will be a large industry on the island where they can sell their catches directly to the island.”

Island’s Education Suffers Under Isolation

Parents often pull their children out of primary schools on Koh Rong, preferring they help fish or farm.

By Vohar Cheat, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
04 November 2008

Behind the voices of students, the noise of the sea spread over high grass, the classroom and a nearby pagoda. Surrounded by beaches and mountain forest and imbued with fresh air, Prek Svay, one of only five primary schools on the island of Koh Rong, would seem like an ideal place to study. Unfortunately, the island’s education system is poor.

The schools here in fact lack both teachers and students. Teachers are hard to find, and students are hard to keep.

Third-grade teacher Pho Sokhem, 26, said he spent $200 of his own money to build a small hut on the school grounds, where he lives with his wife and two-year-old son. Other teachers live in the houses of local officials and villagers, or with monks.

“I spent my own money to buy timbers and peeled-skin trees to build a hut,” Pho Sokhem said. “That is my hut.” He pointed to a small cottage. “Some [teachers] stay at the pagoda and some stay and eat with me.”

Ing Bunna, deputy chief of Sihanoukville’s education department, said the government had asked local authorities to put up some teachers, free of charge, because it lacked the money to build them accommodation. The government also pays a 40,000 riel allowance, about $10, to supplement the 200,000 riel wage, about $50 a month.

Teachers on this island say the 40,000 riel is not enough to assuage the loneliness of the outpost, where some live without the company of family and must spend a lot of money to visit the mainland.

“It is hard to live with little salary here,” said Set Tik, 26, another teacher. “We live far away from home. The transportation cost to visit home is expensive. The food here is expensive. I stay with a nun, and we share meals.”

Schools are up to 40 kilometers apart. Some are inaccessible by roads. The isolation has caused some teachers to renege on their contracts, Ing Bunna said. It has also made it impossible to establish a secondary school. For that, students must travel to Sihanoukville or beyond.

If it is hard to keep teachers here, it is also hard to keep students. Parents often pull their children out of school in order to help them make a living.

Teachers on the island estimated 35 percent of students quit school in 2007, a year when there were only 374 to start with.

“I wish I could have studied as high as possible,” said Kou Moykea, 18, who was among those who quit last year. “But my parents forced me to help them farm and fish, and baby-sit besides.”

Island Separated by Undeveloped Seaway

Passengers leave Sihanoukville en route to Koh Rong, an isolated island 40 kilometers off the coast.

By Vohar Cheat, VOA Khmer
Original report from Sihanoukville
28 October 2008

[Editor’s note: The island of Koh Rong, just 40 kilometers off the coast of Sihanoukville in the Gulf of Thailand, remains underdeveloped. However, locals hope that improvements under a proposed project will lead to better transportation, education, health and economic opportunities. This is the first of a five-part series.]

One day late in September, a small wooden boat left the beach in Sihanoukville and, engines rumbling, made its way off the coast to the island of Koh Rong. The boat had aboard 10 foreign tourists, an uncommonly high number for the island, which remains separated from the mainland and has gone undeveloped for years.

Residents hope that this will change, but any improvements to the island will first require an improvement in transportation. Currently, trips to the island are expensive, and, during the rainy season, travel can be unsafe.

“Traveling down there depends on water transportation,” said Som Chenda, director of Sihanoukville’s tourism department. “Technically, our transportation is not standard. We do not have ferries or cruising vessels. What we have at the moment is small wooden boats, and it is dangerous for a long-distance trip in the big waves of the open sea like that.”

The lack of transportation has meant Koh Rong has so far missed out on the booming tourism experienced by Sihanoukville.

Even now, the lack of accommodation on the island means that foreign tourists prefer to take daytrips. Those who wish to stay will have to camp on the beach or stay in a fishing village.

The only site for foreign accommodation is a set of bungalows being built on neighboring Koh Bang Koh Aun, referred to locally as “Sweetheart Island.” Villagers on Koh Rong say they have been prevented from looking closely at the bungalows, which are roped off by a floating red line 100 meters offshore.

A trip to Koh Rong remains off the public itinerary of most hotels or restaurants in Sihanoukville, adding to its isolation. A visitor must arrange the trip, and bargain for the boat, which can cost between $50 and $170, depending on its size and speed. The trip can take between one and three hours. The island can also be accessed from Koh Sdech.

The 1,400 people who occupy Koh Rong’s four villages seem far from outsiders, and the area was hardly accessed after people settled their as the Khmer Rouge collapsed. The people here are poor, earning a living by farming or fishing with long-tailed boats inconvenient for travel.

Still, the older generation is at ease, and even if the island seems under-developed, they have seen modernization. It used to take three days to travel to the mainland, after all.

"In the past if people go to [Sihanoukville] or Sre Ambil they had to sail, or if there was no wind,” said Ma Ti, 56, who lives on the southern tip of the island. “Now it is much better.”

Residents of the island say they hope developments by the Royal Group, which intends to invest on the island, will bring them more prosperity.

“I believe my people will have better lives if the island is developed by the company,” said Ung Nit, deputy chief of Koh Rong commune, adding that the construction of recent cell phone towers for three companies had already helped.

Jacov Montross, business and finance manager of Royal Group, said investment will have to start with a port, which will lead to a ferry, which “will cater more toward local populations.”