Firms receive 1.67 million hectares of economic concessional land from Cambodian gov't

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has granted economic concessional land of 1.67 million hectares to 169 local and foreign firms so far; however, 51 of them with 479,000 hectares have been revoked licenses because they failed to comply with contracts and master-plans, said a senior government official on Tuesday.
Currently, there are 118 valid firms with 1.19 million hectares of economic concessional land in 17 provinces, Ith Nody, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said Tuesday in the annual meeting of the Ministry of Land Management.
He said that among the valid firms, 41 companies are owned by local investors and 77 are foreign firms.
Among the foreign firms, 27 from China, 28 from Vietnam, 5 from South Korea, 5 from Thailand, 2 from the United States, 3 from Malaysia, 3 from India and one each from Singapore, Israel, Australia and Sweden.
Cambodia has begun to grant economic concessional land to private investors since 1993, aiming at boosting agricultural and agro-industrial plantation and processing for exports, which is expected to create jobs and generate incomes for the people living in the rural area.
A company can get maximum 10,000 hectares of economic concessional land for maximum 99 years.
Agricultural crops in that economic concessional land are rubber, oil palm, sugar cane, acacia, eucalyptus trees and cassava, he said.