Another development is coming ... so are the next land-grabbing and forced eviction

Oknha Soth Sambath in front of his planned Angkor Hills City / Photo by Luc Citrinot

A megalomania project planned near Angkor Wat

May 22, 2011
By Luc Citrinot, eTN

Is a Las Vegas-style resort city really what the kingdom needs in terms of development?

PHNOM PENH (eTN) - To the tourists, Cambodia is mostly known for being home to the fabled city of Angkor Wat with its myriad of beautiful temples. At some point over the next twenty years, Cambodia might become famous for Angkor Hills. The project is the brainchild of Oknha Soth Sambath, a Cambodian businessman. The affable man is said to be very close to the top of Cambodia’s politics, which might explain the official endorsement of the government for his project. Just imagine a huge piece of land initially covering 361 hectares, located halfway between Thailand and Siem Reap where Angkor temples are located. The future integrated resort will be some 30 km away from the temples and 100 km from the Thai border at Popet/Sisophon. A highway is due to link both areas making the resort easily accessible for visitors.

Imagine then dozens of modern buildings emulating the stupas, the chedis, the bas-reliefs, and the shapes from Angkor Wat built surrounded by paddy fields and some forests. This is Angkor Hills City, a gigantic modern resort built around widening crescents in the middle of nowhere. The project was officially launched in July 2010, and according to Mr. Soth Sambath, it has so far generated a huge interest from investors from China, Macau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. In fact, the development has been completed by Agostine & Raphael Group, an international development consulting firm based in Dubai.

Club Med to consider building new resort in Cambodia

Club Med Plans New Resorts in China, India, Cambodia

By Beth Jinks and Catherine Yang

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Club Mediterranee SA, Europe's largest resort company, said it's seeking sites to build resorts in Asia, its fastest-growing market, in nations including China and India.

``We've doubled the market in Southeast Asia since about two years ago,'' Caroline Puechoultres, Club Med's regional chief executive, said in an interview in Hong Kong today. ``We've identified 1 million to 2 million potential users in places like China, India and even Southeast Asia.'' Resorts in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are also being considered, she said.

The number of people that visited another country increased 4.5 percent in 2006 to a record, the World Tourism Organization said in January. International tourist visits rose to 842 million last year and may exceed 1.56 billion by 2020, fuelling demand for hotel and resort services, it said.

About 200,000 of Club Med's 1.6 million members worldwide are in Asia and that number is expected to double in the next few years, Puechoultres said.

Club Med has nine Asia resorts in Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Maldives and Polynesia. It takes up to three years to build a new Club Med village ``from scratch'' and costs between 50 million euros ($67.7 million) and 100 million euros, Puechoultres said.

Terrorism, Tsunamis

Terrorism and recent natural disasters in the region continue to deter some tourists, she said.

Southern Asia is still rebuilding after the December 2004 tsunami killed hundreds of thousands along coastlines. Countries, including Thailand and Indonesia, are tackling terrorists who have targeted tourists in bombing attacks and much of the region is dealing with avian influenza.

While Club Med's Thailand resort in Phuket has ``completely recovered'' from the tsunami after a 5 million euro renovation and repair, political instability, an escalating insurgency in the south, bombings in the capital Bangkok and martial law across part of the kingdom since the Sept. 19 coup have taken a toll, Puechoultres said.

Indonesia's resort island of Bali was hit by bombings in 2002 and 2005, killing hundreds of tourists and locals.

Industrywide, 481 hotels are under construction or planned for China and 198 in India, up from 316 and 161 last September, Lodging Econometrics, a consulting company in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, estimated last month. Another 283 hotels are under development in the rest of Asia.

``Asia Pacific will more and more come back as a really growing destination for tourism and Southeast Asia will grow probably the fastest,'' Puechoultres said. ``The cost of operations is quite low in the region and the sites are just wonderful.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Catherine Yang in Hong Kong at cyyang@bloomberg.net ; Beth Jinks in Bangkok at bjinks1@bloomberg.net.

Malaysian company to invest 100 mln USD to build resort along Cambodian-Vietnamese border

March 01, 2007

CVI Ressort of Malaysia plans to invest about 100 million U.S. dollars to build five-star hotel, golf course, international information center, stadium, entertainment center, commercial center and supermarket on 130 hectares of land in Svay Rieng province along the Cambodian- Vietnamese border, Srey Thamarong, advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen said in Phnom Penh on Thursday.

Lim Thee Wah, owner of the company, recently told Hun Sen that the hotel will have 450 rooms and the golf course 18 holes, with nine in Cambodia and the other 9 in Vietnam, he said.

Hun Sen supports the investment plan because it fits the policy of the royal government and will boost the economic growth of the kingdom, he said.

Hun Sen has tried for long to develop the border areas into a complex zone with industrial factory, tourism project and economic and trade facility, thus bringing peace and security there, he said.

Hun Sen expects the CVI Ressort plan to develop the areas into a sight-seeing spot, where both Cambodians and Vietnamese can enter without visa, he said.

The prime minister also wished that similar plans will occur later to develop the Thai-Cambodian and the Laos-Cambodian border areas, he added.

Source: Xinhua