Companies warned over slow
development of ELCs
Tue, 8 July 2014
Provincial government officials in Stung Treng have warned
companies granted economic land concessions (ELCs) in the province to fulfil
their promised development plans or face losing their rights to the land.
Touch Thea, director of the Stung Treng provincial
department of agriculture, said the call for firms to deliver on their promises
was made at a meeting with 12 companies.
It followed a recent evaluation by the National
Assembly-Senate Relations and Inspection Ministry which revealed that some of
them were lagging in their agreed-upon ELC commitments, Thea said.
“The meeting was to find out why some companies are running
behind their schedule plantation as planned. We are going to create a working
group of the relevant department to control over the granted ELC.
“For the first step, provincial officials will inform and encourage
those companies to put more effort into speeding up their plantation. We will
report to the ministry of agriculture and the government, in the worst case, to
take back the ELC rights.”
Thea said the ultimate purpose of an ELC is to provide jobs
and prosperity for local communities.
The department director declined to name the companies
called to the meeting, but a 2013 provincial investment report from the Council
for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) shows there are just 12 ELCs in Stung
Treng. They are granted to Cassaca Processing Co Ltd, Sal Sopheap Peanich Co
Ltd, Sopheaknica Investment Industrial Co Ltd, Phumady Investment Group Co Ltd,
GG World Group (Cambodia) Development Co Ltd, Grand Land Agriculture Co Ltd,
Green Sea Agriculture Co Ltd, Siv Guek Investment Co Ltd, Cambodia Research
Mine and Development Co Ltd, Un-Inter Trading and Development Co Ltd, Bonarita
Stung Treng Co Ltd and Sok Heng Co Ltd.
The 12 companies’ ELCs total 177,850 hectares for the
development of large agricultural plantations, including of cassava, rosewood,
cashew nuts, acacia trees and rubber.
The Mong Reththy Group, owner of Green Sea Agriculture
(GSA), has the greatest share of concessions in the province, according to a
list of ELCs from the Ministry of Agriculture. The list shows that the group
was granted over 100,000 hectares in 2001 to plant acacia, rubber, cassava,
sugarcane and jatropha, which is used to produce oil for biodiesel.
According to the Mong Rethythy Group website, the company
has cultivated 1,200 hectares of this land – only slightly over 1 per cent of
their total concession area.
“For why the company is late in
getting plantation to cover most of the area, the answer is short: because we
do not have money. We are working to gather funding,” the group’s president and
CEO, Mong Reththy, said yesterday.
Ouch Leng, director of the Cambodian Human Rights Task
Force, said there has yet to be a good example set in the use of ELCs, and that
the concession policy offers fewer pros than cons.
“It is obvious that Cambodia is losing economically by
granting ELCs with good forests which are worth billions of dollars in exchange
for only $2 to $5 per hectare,” he said.
“The expected result of an ideal ELC on paper shows that it
benefits people, but in reality ELCs are hurting people in the community and
only serving a group of people who have power and are corrupt,” he added.
Leng pointed to two companies – Sal Sophea Peanich and
Sopheaknika Investment Industrial – that have already been involved in cases of
land conflict with claims of encroachment on traditional land.
Neither company could be reached yesterday. Steng Treng
Governor Kol Somol declined to comment.
