More Vietcong bloodsugar coming up in Svay Rieng

Viet Nam invests over VND110 billion in sugar planting in Cambodia


July, 26 2012
VNS (Hanoi)

Ha Noi— Sugar factories from Tay Ninh Province have spent over VND110 billion (US$5 million) to plant sugar cane in Cambodia's Svay Rieng Province for the 2012-2013 crop, said the Tay Ninh People's Committee.

The Bien Hoa- Tay Ninh and Bourbon-Tay Ninh sugar factories are in a joint venture with their Cambodian partners to plant 3,500 hectares of sugar cane on plantations that will provide materials for these Vietnamese sugar factories. Vietnamese sugar producers have planted the crops in Cambodia as sugar cane in Viet Nam has faced stiff competition for farmland from other crops such as cassava and rubber.

However, Vietnamese investors said poor infrastructure has made it difficult to transport sugar cane to Viet Nam. Provincial authorities met last week to discuss measures to tackle these difficulties in a bid to promote trade and business ties between the two provinces in the time to come.

Sugar firm faces bitter accusations

Ly Yong Phat (L) sitting next to Kith Meng (C) and Hun To (R) (Photo: AP)

Tuesday, 19 June 2012
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

A married couple working at the Phnom Penh Sugar Company in Kampong Speu owned by tycoon and senator Ly Yong Phat said that poor working conditions, including withheld wages and orders forbidding them to leave, prompted them to flee the complex on Sunday.

They left under the cover of night, scaling a locked gate with what they said were dozens of other fellow employees.

According to 48-year-old worker Chum Phum and his wife, Teng Siek, a supervisor arbitrarily withheld salaries to the point where they had no money to save or spend.

“We came to work in April, but I could not even have 1,000 riel [US25 cents] in my pocket, because from week to week, he always reduced our salary and [the salaries of] other workers. And when we are sick, there isn’t medicine,” he said.

'Land grabs' mar Cambodia's boom, rattle investors [-About time!!!]

• As economy grows, forced evictions rise
• Lack of documents cause of land disputes
• EU concerned; duty-free deal may be withdrawn on some produce

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Kong Song's farmland was his family's livelihood for three decades until the bulldozers moved in and tore down his home in rural Cambodia to make way for a multimillion dollar foreign-led business.

His family was one of 253 forcibly evicted five years ago in southern Koh Kong province to accommodate a $90.6 million sugar project by a firm lured by duty-free exports to the European Union that were designed to help the world's poorest countries.

This is the flip side of a foreign investment boom in which the rich and powerful cash in at the expense of what rights groups estimate is about 30,000 Cambodians forcibly evicted from their homes a year.

The evictions and so-called "land grabs" have angered donors, putting at stake hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid as well as a trade scheme that gives Cambodian produce tariff-free access to the European Union.

Ministry calls activists for questioning

Thursday, 09 September 2010
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

AN Interior Ministry official in Phnom Penh has summoned three village representatives listed in a complaint stemming from a high-profile land dispute in Kampong Speu province, prompting concerns that they could soon be arrested.

The three men hail from Thpong district’s Omlaing commune, and they have been advocating on behalf of more than 2,000 families believed to have been affected by a 9,000-hectare land concession awarded to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, which is owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat.

In a demonstration last month, about 300 Omlaing villagers blocked a section of National Road 52 in Kampong Speu after accusing company employees and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldiers of attempting to tear down homes.

Company representative Chheng Kimsruon said she had been trapped in her car for hours during the protest, and later filed a complaint accusing five men of illegal detention.

A letter signed on Monday by In Bora, director of the Interior Ministry’s Penal Police Department, summoned three of the men – You Tho, Phal Vannak and Ieng Chiva – to appear at the ministry’s offices in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. Though Chheng Kimsruon said earlier this week that her complaint had been filed at Kampong Speu provincial court, she said yesterday that it had also been filed at the ministry.

Phal Vannak and You Tho said yesterday that they would appear for the questioning session, though both expressed concern that they would be detained.

In Bora could not be reached for comment yesterday. Mok Chito, director of the ministry’s criminal police, said he did not know about the complaint or the summonses.

Ouch Leng, land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, accused officials of trying to stave off a protest should the men be arrested, saying it was unlikely a large number of Kampong Speu villagers would travel with them to Phnom Penh.

EU Denies It is 'Investigating' Sugar Deals [-One step forward, 10 steps back: EU position]

Villagers in Kampong Speu protest against Phnom Penh Sugar Company for land grabbing. (Photo: by Heng Reaksmey)

Rafaelo Dochao Moreno

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Tuesday, 07 September 2010

“The EU delegation is collecting information from different sources, and we will inform our headquarters in Brussels on the situation on this issue.”

The EU's top representative in Cambodia on Tuesday denied claims his office was investigating a land dispute between villagers and a rubber plantation, instead saying it was “collecting information” for EU headquarters in the matter.

Earlier media reports said the office was investigating a dispute between the Phnom Penh Sugar Industrial Co., Ltd., and villagers who say they have been kicked off their land.

In a statement, EU Charges d'Affaires Rafael Dochao-Moreno denied an investigation was initiated, but he said, “the EU delegation is collecting information from different sources, and we will inform our headquarters in Brussels on the situation on this issue.”

Phnom Penh Sugar has denied similar reports that it benefits from a preferential EU trade agreement called Anything But Arms, which nixes tariffs on goods from less-developed countries like Cambodia.

“It is unjustified to blame EBA for violations of human rights or land rights,” Dochao-Moreno said. “The EU is always concerned with the full respect of human rights, not only in Cambodia, but in the world, and we believe that questions related to forced evictions need to be dealt with by the Cambodian government.”

EU officials met with rights groups and other representatives of villagers on Friday.

Omlaing men called to court

Villagers from Omlaing commune, in Kampong Speu province, protest outside the provincial court on March 24 after the arrest of two community representatives. (Photo by: Will Baxter)

Monday, 06 September 2010
May Titthara
The Phnom Penh Post

TWO residents of Kampong Speu province’s Omlaing commune said yesterday that they had been summoned to the provincial court to face allegations that they are living on land belonging to the Phnom Penh Sugar Company.

Chhuon Chuon said yesterday that he was convinced the summons was related to a complaint filed by the company, the recipient of a 9,000-hectare land concession affecting more than 2,000 families. The company is owned by Cambodian People’s Party Senator Ly Yong Phat.

“The company wants to take over my land,” Chhuon Chuon said. “They asked me to move to a new area and said they would provide me with about US$500. But when I refused to move, they filed a complaint accusing me of living on the company’s land.”

But Chheang Kimsruon, a representative of Phnom Penh Sugar, yesterday denied that the company had filed the complaint that led to the summoning of both Chhuon Chuon and his neighbour Sok Than.

She said the complaint had actually been filed by the pre-vious landowner, Hab Ren, a councillor in Omlaing.

“The previous landowner tried to negotiate with the villagers many times, but they did not listen, so she filed a complaint to ask the villagers to clarify at the court whether they have any evidence to prove that the land belongs to them,” Chheang Kimsruon said.

Phnom Penh Sugar was awarded the Omlaing concession in 2009. Hab Ren could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Khut Sopheang, provincial deputy prosecutor, said he did not remember who filed the complaint, and that he was out of the office and thus unable to check yesterday.

Chhuon Chuon said he and Sok Than would appear in court on Tuesday, though he said they were concerned officials would move to arrest them.

On March 24, two community representatives from Omlaing, You Tho and Khem Vuthy, were held on charges related to the dispute. The men were detained for several days and later released.

“We dare not go alone because we are afraid of being arrested like our representatives You Tho and Khem Vuthy,” Chhuon Chuon said. “So we will travel to court with all of our villagers.”

Phal Vannak, a representative of affected families, said yesterday that the company had failed to send anyone to a meeting scheduled by Chheang Kimsruon for Saturday.

“Instead of finding a resolution for the villagers, they filed a complaint against more of us,” he said. “They are trying to threaten the villagers until we stop protesting for our land rights.”

Ouch Leng, a land programme officer for the rights group Adhoc, said Ly Yong Phat’s company frequently used the court system to intimidate villagers.

“The company uses the court system to force villagers to stop protesting,” he said.

EU To Look Into Sugar Deals, Land Disputes [-About time!!!]

Rafaelo Dochao Moreno

Heng Reaksmey, VOA Khmer
Phnom Penh Friday, 03 September 2010

“Before the EU has agreements with companies in Cambodia, they should investigate whether those companies are involved in human rights abuses, before they take the goods for import into Europe”

Representatives of the rights group Licadho met with European Union officials on Friday, following reports this week that the EU's preferential trade polices were linked to agricultural land evictions.

Officials from Licadho and the EU confirmed the closed-door meeting on Friday but declined to elaborate.

However, the meeting follows a week of increased media scrutiny questioning whether the EU's trade deals are being taken advantage of by companies behind the forced evictions of thousands of people.

The EU's Cambodian charge d'affaires, Rafael Dochao-Moreno, said at an EU-sponsored human rights forum on Wednesday the EU would look into whether its Anything But Arms program, which provides tariff exemptions for goods exported from less-developed countries, was linked to illegal evictions.

“This is something we are analyzing now,” the Cambodia Daily quoted him saying.

The Cambodia Daily also reported last week that the sugar plantation operations of Cambodian People's Party Senator Ly Yong Phat were fueling land disputes while cashing in on the EU trade deal.

Villagers in the provinces of Koh Kong and Kampong Speu have alleged that sugar plantations operated by Ly Yong Phat have pushed them off their land. Major protests have ensued, leading to violence and arrests.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Hun Sen wrote a letter to opposition party lawmakers defending the Kampong Speu concession, given by the Ministry of Agriculture, an act which Dochao-Moreno was quoted as saying had prompted the EU investigation.

Ly Yong Phat told VOA Khmer on Friday that his sugar plantations did not have deals with Europe.

The Cambodia Daily, however, reported that Ly Yong Phat operated sugar contracts through a joint venture with Thai company Khon Kaen Sugar, which in turn sells it to a British industrial food company.

“Before the EU has agreements with companies in Cambodia, they should investigate whether those companies are involved in human rights abuses, before they take the goods for import into Europe,” Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the opposition Sam Rainsy Party, said.

EU urged to probe Cambodian farmers' rights violations

Hun Xen's cronies: Mong Reththy (L) and Ly Yong Phat (R)

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Cambodian rights groups urged the European Union on Friday to investigate what they said were human rights violations by local firms exporting sugar to European countries under a free trade scheme.

"We are calling on the EU to investigate the gross human rights abuses that have been perpetrated in connection with the production of sugar that is being exported to Europe free of tariffs under the Everything but Arms agreement," David Pred, executive director of land rights group Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, told Reuters.

The "Everything But Arms" initiative lets developing countries export certain products tariff-free to the EU.

Pred said the initiative had not benefited poor Cambodian farmers, who had been forced off their land by the authorities and companies wanting to develop sugar production.

"We are simply asking the EU to implement its regulations, which require the European Commission to take precautionary measures to bring Cambodia into compliance with its international obligations," he said.

"If those measures are not successful, the preferential treatment of Cambodian sugar should be suspended in accordance with EC rules," Pred said.

According to local rights group Licadho, at least 1,214 families are involved in land disputes with a sugar plantation operator and senator, Ly Yong Phat, in three provinces. Ly Yong Phat declined to discuss the allegation when contacted on Friday.

Rafael Dochao Moreno, charge d'affaires of the EU delegation to Cambodia, said it was unjustified to blame the EBA initiative for violations of human rights or land rights.

"EBA is a trade preferential scheme that supports the economic and social development of Cambodia," Moreno said.

"We believe that questions related to forced evictions need to be dealt with by the Cambodian government and we encourage an open and inclusive process to address those concerns," he added.

In a bid to attract foreign investment, Cambodia has awarded big land concessions to companies, mainly from China, Vietnam and South Korea, to run mines, power plants and lately sugar plantations.

At the start of 2010, Cambodia launched its first sugar factory in 40 years in the southern province of Koh Kong.

The $90.6 million plant is a joint venture between Cambodia's Koh Kong Sugar Industry Company Limited, Thailand's Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Pcl and Taiwan's Vewong Corp.

Cambodia's Mong Reththy Group is planning to build the country's second-biggest sugar factory, worth $100 million.

(Editing by Alan Raybould)

NGOs say sugar deal may lead to evictions

Thursday, 02 September 2010
Irwin Loy
The Phnom Penh Post

LOCAL rights groups plan to meet with European Union officials this week to warn that an EU scheme aimed at fostering trade from developing countries might be fuelling evictions in the Kingdom.

David Pred, executive director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, said local groups would meet with EU officials Friday to outline concerns about the EU’s Everything But Arms scheme, which allows Least-Developed Countries to export duty-free goods to Europe.

Rights groups say the government has issued land concessions to private companies, including some that are using disputed land to make way for sugar plantations – with the sugar destined for EU nations. One major dispute has pitted 2,000 families in Kampong Speu’s Omlaing commune against Ly Yong Phat, a ruling party senator whose holdings include the Phnom Penh Sugar Company, the recipient of a 9,000-hectare concession.

“Villagers are losing their farms to land-grabbing, and this needs to be addressed,” said Mathieu Pellerin, a consultant for Licadho, one of the concerned groups. “Hopefully the EU ... will do the right thing.”

Rafael Dochao Moreno, the chargé d’affaires for the Delegation of the European Commission to Cambodia, said EU officials take the issue seriously. But ultimately, he said, problems are best resolved by the government, not EU “sanctions”.

“The people that pay the biggest price for the sanctions are not rich people but poor people,” Dochao Moreno said at a press conference after a seminar on human rights yesterday.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Panom - Penh Sugar Inc.

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Cambodian rights group says tax breaks leading to forced evictions

CPP senator-tycoon-cum-land thief Ly Yong Phat (aka Thai citizen Pad Supa), the owner of Phnom Penh Sugar Co. Ltd., is involved in many forced evictions in Kampong Speu province

There are reports of assaults, arbitary arrests and threats during forced evictions. [Supplied: LICADHO]

Monday, August 16, 2010
Radio Australia News

A land rights organisation in Cambodia says EU tax breaks meant to promote trade with poor nations are contributing to evictions at gunpoint in rural areas.

The EU tax-free status of exports from Cambodia to the EU is one of the key factors that's revived Cambodia's sugar industry, after years of war and instability.

But land concessions granted by the Cambodian Government to companies have led to forced evictions involving armed police and soldiers.

At least two people have been shot during these evictions, and David Pred, the Cambodia country director of Bridges Across Borders, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program there are many reports of assaults, arbitary arrests and threats.

"We are extremely concerned that instiling this tariff-free status on Cambodia without recquiring any environmental and social safeguards is encouraging the expansion of a model of industrial agriculture, that is in fact very harmful to Cambodian farmers and rural communitites, and has been directly tied to violence and the abuse of human rights," he said.

The European Union has rejected the claims, with the Charge D'Affairs of the EU Delegation to Cambodia, Rafaelo Dochao Moreno, says it's unfair to link its trade initiative to rights abuses in Cambodia.

"It's like accusing for instance, where there's a drunk driver killing a pedestrian, you accuse the manufacturers of cars of this killing," he said.

"There is a relation because the car has killed a person but it is not a direct responsibility of someone that is manufacturing cars."

Cambodia urged to reverse sugar land concessions

By Prak Chan Thul

"We lost farmland, animals, ponds, lakes, fishes, forestry resources, wild animals and roads" - An Haiya, a villager

PHNOM PENH, May 12 (Reuters) - Cambodian rights groups and villagers urged the government on Wednesday to reverse hundreds of land concessions awarded mostly to sugar companies, saying villagers were suffering.

The Cambodian government was believed to have allowed foreign investors involved in joint ventures to do business on land larger than 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres), which is against the law, said Ny Chakrya, chief investigator for rights group Adhoc, at a briefing.

World sugar prices surged to a 29-year high of 30.40 U.S. cents per lb in February, encouraging sugar millers to move into Cambodia, hitherto a net importer of sugar, to produce for export to the European Union.

They can take advantage of a scheme known as "Everything But Arms", which lets developing countries export certain products tariff-free to the EU.

In a bid to attract foreign investment, Cambodia has awarded big concessions to companies, mainly from China, Vietnam and South Korea, to run mines, power plants and lately sugar plantations.

But the rights groups say the land concessions have hurt communities and damaged the environment.

"We lost farmland, animals, ponds, lakes, fishes, forestry resources, wild animals and roads," said villager An Haiya.

At the start of 2010, Cambodia launched its first sugar factory in 40 years in the southern province of Koh Kong, worth $90.6 million. It is a joint venture between Cambodia's Koh Kong Sugar Industry Company Limited, Thailand's Khon Kaen Sugar and Taiwan's Vewong Corp.

Cambodia's Mong Reththy Group is in talks to build the country's second-biggest sugar factory, worth $100 million, as part of a joint venture with a French company that would further help revive an industry that collapsed during the country's lengthy civil war.

The factory was expected to produce around 80,000 tonnes of sugar annually within three years, mostly for export to European markets.

(Editing by Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat and Alan Raybould)

Cambodian firm plans $100 million sugar plant JV

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Cambodia is in talks to build the country's biggest sugar plant, worth $100 million, as part of a joint venture with a French company that would help revive an industry that collapsed during the country's lengthy civil war.

The Mong Reththy Group plans to build the country's second sugar plant since the 1970s and hopes to produce 80,000 tonnes of annually within three years for export to European markets, the company's president told Reuters on Tuesday.

The project aims to take advantage of the European Union's "Everything But Arms" trade initiative, which allows tariff-free imports of any product except weapons from poor countries.

Mong Reththy, a Cambodian tycoon and senator, said his company was still in talks on the proposed joint venture with the French company, which he would not name until a deal was struck.

Cambodian companies lacked sufficient funds to go it alone and remained dependent on foreign investment, he said, adding now was a good time to start because of the high price of sugar cane.

"It's impossible to come up with $100 million. Cambodians can't do it alone, there needs to a partnership with foreigners," Mong Reththy told Reuters when discussing the plant, to be built in the northern province of Stung Treng.

The group's deputy director, Mok Chansothea, said clearance of the 10,000 hectare (24,710 acre) site, around 500 km (310 miles) north of the capital, Phnom Penh, would begin on Feb. 22 and planting would start in June.

Last month Cambodia, a net importer of sugar, launched a sugar plant in the southern province of Koh Kong, the first sugar facility to operate in 40 years.

The plant, worth $90.6 million, is a joint venture between Cambodia's Koh Kong Sugar Industry Company Limited, Thailand's Khon Kaen Sugar and Taiwan's Vewong Corp, according to local media.

The two projects would produce a combined 160,000 tonnes of sugar for export, Mong Reththy said.

That is significantly less than Thailand, the world's second-biggest exporter with over 5 million tonnes a year, but the new plants are a sign of the efforts being made by the impoverished country to boost exports and reduce its reliance on neighbouring countries.

(Editing by Martin Petty)

Vietnamese company to grow sugar cane in Cambodia: more land-grabbing to expected in Svay Rieng?

21/06/2007
Sugar company to grow cane in Cambodia

The Bien Hoa Sugar Company (BSJC) has decide to cultivate 2,000 ha of sugarcane in Cambodia's Svay Rieng province to serve its future sugar plants in southeastern Tay Ninh province.

The company has reached agreement on the project with authorities of Svay Rieng province, said BSJC Deputy General Director Tran Phuoc Anh on June 20, adding that the initiative is expected to bring a stable income to thousands of local workers.

Anh said that his company would supply capital and sugarcane cuttings, and transfer farming techniques to the farmers.

The firm is building a factory to produce sugar and sugared products in Chau Thanh district of Tay Ninh province which borders Svay Rieng.

BSJC is currently operating a sugar plant capable of processing 3,500 tonnes of sugarcanes per day in Tay Ninh province where it has developed 4,000 ha of cane crops.

Source: Vietnam Agency