Prime Minister Hun Sen granted the Justice Ministry permission to sell 140 hectares of Boeng Tamok lake and use the proceeds for infrastructure upgrades, according to a royal decree, with the new diktat coming weeks after the ministry was given land in the lake area.
Lao Annie, who heads several real estate companies in Cambodia, according to company records, said on Tuesday that she was “shocked” when she read news about all the important people who had land near her in Preah Sihanouk.
The documents, released on Monday and all signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, are dated between August 4 and September 2 and continue the recent flurry of land privatization across the country
A former Pailin governor and a real estate developer have received land that was formerly designated as state forest but had already been cleared, cultivated and sold by individuals, local officials said.
The government has allocated three plots totaling nearly 100 hectares in Kampot, Kandal and Preah Sihanouk provinces separately to the prime ministerial bodyguard unit, a businesswoman and 22 families, according to sub-decrees released this week.
A “simple person” with two villas and an estimated tens of millions of dollars worth of land in Siem Reap forest has been granted 451 hectares of state land, according to a government document and local commune chiefs.
Interior Minister Sar Kheng has issued a warning against a Kandal province deputy police chief over an accusation that the deputy abused his power to interfere in a local land sale.
Two state land-swap deals involving a notorious tycoon and the allocation of 30 hectares of Boeng Tamok lake land for infilling were invalidated by a Council of Ministers order dated Monday.
Twenty-three families have ostensibly received a vacant plot on the edge of Phnom Penh’s Boeng Tamok lake — but some locals, including the village chief, suggest people have been paid to thumb-print applications to obtain lake land for unknown outsiders.
More than 8,000 square meters of central Phnom Penh land will be granted to Choeung Sopheap, one of the country’s most prominent tycoons whose firms are known for filling in Boeng Kak lake and previously receiving a 300,000-hectare land concession.
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