Overal Status of Economic Land Concession in Cambodia

Until April 2010, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) requests to the Royal government of Cambodia for contract cancelation of 41 companies with total land area of 379,034 ha. At the present, there have been 85 contracted and validated companies with total land area of 956,690 ha located in 16 provinces.

Economic Land Concession under 1,000 hectares

After enforcement of sub-degree on economic land concession on 27 December, 2005, 47 companies individually less than 1,000 ha have been granted by provincial authorities in 9 provinces.

Negotiation on reduction the area more than 10,000 hectares

The 9 economic land concession companies with land area of more than 10,000 ha are subjected to negotiate for reducing the area to 10,000 ha (According to Sub Degree No. 146 on Economic Land Concession).

In 2007, MAFF has negotiated with 5 ELC companies as a phase I, while 4 ELC companies have agreed on the reduction of their land area to 10,000 ha, and the remaining 1 company have canceled the contract. However, MAFF negotiated 4 companies in 2008.

At the present, MAFF has requested to cancel contract of 1 company, 1 company has agreed to reduce their land area to 10,000 ha and the remaining 2 companies are under monitoring their activities of implementation.

Review existing Economic Land Concession

From May to June 2009, MAFF has set 5 working groups for reviewing and evaluation exiting all economic land concession companies in 16 provinces.

In July 2009, working groups submitted reports to MAFF for evaluation all companies.

After receiving the report, MAFF has evaluated and guided to 38 companies, which are slowly nor late in implementation process and has also proposed to the RGC for cancellation of SOR CHOR NOR and contracts, in the result, the RGC has canceled 5 companies, while the land area equal to 40,171 hectares.