News

Satellite photos show expansion of Chinese-funded naval base in Cambodia

Recent satellite images taken of the coastal area around Sihanoukville, Cambodia, show a significant development of a China-funded naval base that would help Beijing boost its power projection not only in Southeast Asia but also the Taiwan Strait. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that Phnom ...

RFA Staff / Edited by Malcolm Foster

Indigenous Cambodians stripped of ancestral land

In the remote and densely forested northeastern province of Mondulkiri in Cambodia, Song Pro, a member of the indigenous Bunong community, stares at a rubber plantation that was once a sacred forest. When the war in Indochina came to Cambodia in the 1970s, the forest saved ...

Nehru Pry

Thailand grapples with allowing more Chinese landowners

Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades, but foreign land ownership has long been restricted. Foreigners can own no more than 49% of any condominium development and are restricted from owning most freehold estates. Yet Thailand is keen to attract ...

PREM SINGH GILL

Value of new non-SEZ projects rises threefold

Effective management of the Covid-19 crisis in Cambodia has led to an increase in the number of government-approved investment projects outside the Kingdom’s special economic zones (SEZ) in the first two months of 2022, with a total capital investment of “more than $2 billion” – ...

Hin Pisei

Kampong Chhnang villagers get in land dispute over clay digs

Chrey Bakk commune authorities in Kampong Chhnang province’s Rolea Ba’ier district are working to solve a land dispute between residents and a landowner who allegedly prevented the locals from digging for clay to make pot stoves. Commune chief Taing Buntot said on October 17 that more ...

Orm Bunthoeurn

Ministry reports illegal land grabs in Bokor National Park

Authorities have identified 201 cases of illegal land encroachment, involving more than 619 hectares, in Preah Monivong (Bokor) National Park from July 3 last year to July 31 this year. Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra said recently that the ministry had submitted an official letter ...

Son Minea

Carving up the Cardamoms: Conservationists fear massive land grab in Cambodia

A new regulation signed into law in March this year but only unveiled publicly in May will see almost 127,000 hectares (313,800 acres) of previously protected land in Cambodia made available for sale or rent, prompting fears among conservationists about a land grab for some ...

GERALD FLYNN & ANDREW BALL & PHOUNG VANTHA

Mekong Development Zones Facilitating Illicit Activities: Report

Economic development zones in mainland Southeast Asia have contributed to a range of illicit activities, including drug trafficking and wildlife trafficking, according to a new report from C4ADS, a U.S.-based research organization. The report, which analyzes 110 economic development zones (EDZs) in the five lower Mekong nations – ...

Sebastian Strangio

Vietnamese Mother, Son Draw Eight-Year Prison Terms for Land-Rights Activism

A court in northern Vietnam’s Hoa Binh province on Wednesday sentenced land-rights activist Can Thi Theu and her son Trinh Ba Tu to eight years in prison each for posting online articles and livestream videos criticizing the government for its handling of a deadly land-rights ...

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Vietnam tightens land management

Vietnam’s ministries of Construction, and Natural Resources and Environment have requested provinces and cities review state management on land prices amid ‘land fever’ in some localities. The environment ministry said land prices in some localities and areas have increased dramatically, which could affect socio-economic development and ...

Asia News Network

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