When Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet broke ground last Tuesday on a controversial, $1.7 billion canal that will eventually link the capital to the coast, he proudly announced that the investment for the first portion of the canal was “100 percent Cambodian.”
Once completed, the 180 km-long (110 miles) Funan Techo canal will allow ships to move from Phnom Penh to the Gulf of Thailand, bypassing the need to go through Vietnam and lowering transport costs — though experts have warned the environmental costs are steep.
Despite the ambition of the project, which was first publicized barely a year ago, scant information exists on the funding. Hun Manet’s comments represented a rare official statement regarding the investors behind the first part, a 20 kilometer stretch that will link the Mekong and Tonle Bassac rivers.
As the prime minister explained, 51% of the capital would be provided by the state-owned Sihanoukville Autonomous Port and Phnom Penh Autonomous Port. The rest would come from a single private company called the Overseas Cambodian Investment Corporation, or OCIC.
Owned by a powerful and well-connected tycoon, Pung Kheav Se, OCIC in recent years has become Cambodia’s developer of choice.
The company is the primary funder of the Techo International Airport, a 2600-hectare, $1.5 billion airport on the outskirts of Phnom Penh expected to open next year and replace the capital’s current airport.
In the mid-2000s, OCIC turned Koh Pich, or Diamond Island, from a sparsely populated sandbar into one of Phnom Penh’s most valuable parcels of real estate. Four years ago, the company broke ground on another landfill project: a $2.5 billion satellite city just across from Koh Pich.
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But if such projects have been lucrative for OCIC’s shareholders, they’ve been devastating for many Cambodians who happened to be living on the coveted land. Collectively, the projects have resulted in at least hundreds of evictions and numerous land disputes — many of them lasting years and some turning violent. Those living along the canal’s purported path are now bracing themselves for what may soon come.
Less than 20 miles from central Phnom Penh, Chey Udom village in Kandal’s Kien Svay district looks like most of Cambodia’s countryside, with dirt roads leading toward sprawling paddy fields. Though the ground-breaking was barely a kilometer away — so close that the sounds of the ceremony could be heard during interviews here — the estimated 100 people in this village who will have to move have yet to be given any notice about compensation, resident Heng Chong Yan told Radio Free Asia.
“It takes a long time for us as farmers to build a house because we do not have a large income like others,” he said. “People’s concerns are common and everyone’s concerns need to be heard. We urge the government to provide adequate compensation in exchange for a suitable place to live.”
A new airport raises concerns
On June 20, 2021, a small group of residents in Kandal province's Boeng Khyang commune held a ceremony to curse the developer that was pushing them from their land, VOD news agency reported at the time.
Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars that OCIC was sinking into its airport project, residents had been offered just $8 per square meter in compensation for their land — about one-tenth of market rate, according to villagers.
Years of negotiations and protests had yielded scant progress and frequent arrests by police. And so residents asked instead for the developers to suffer like they had.
“If you come on the road, the car will overturn in a traffic accident,” VOD quoted a curser. “If you come through the air, the plane will crash and disappear. If you come on the waterway, the ship will disappear.”
Years on, OCIC’s airport, roads and waterways are moving ahead as smoothly as ever. The villagers pushed out or still threatened the Techo International Airport (named, like the canal, for an honorific used by former Prime Minister Hun Sen) remain as cursed as ever.
One day after construction on the canal launched, Sun Sambo explained how years of fighting OCIC for proper compensation had exhausted him and those living in five villages affected by the project. An estimated 500 families were affected by the project, with an unknown number of holdouts still locked in compensation disputes.
As he waits for compensation that would be enough for him to buy land elsewhere in proximity to Phnom Penh, Sun Sambo tries to get on with his life, though he knows he will likely be forced to leave soon enough.
“We are not allowed to build on our land or fix our houses, so even if we have dilapidated houses we want to repair we cannot. The airport security company has the authority to prohibit us,” he Sambo told RFA.
He said he feared those living along the would-be canal would soon face the same situation as he.
“Some are poor and when it comes to problems, they are getting poorer. So I want a solution, people do not object or oppose the [development] but want a good solution for us,” he said.
When contacted by RFA last week and asked about compensation negotiations related to the airport, OCIC deputy director general Touch Samnang said that he is not in charge of the project. Follow-up calls to learn more about OCIC’s plans regarding those impacted by the canal went unanswered.
Am Sam Ath, director general for public affairs at local rights group Licadho, told RFA that both the government and company should be transparent about their plans and any potential impacts.
“People support development, especially the digging of the canal, but what is important is how to compensate them according to the principles of the Royal Government,” said Am Sam Ath.
While the airport has been the most high-profile of OCIC projects in recent years, it is far from the only one.
In 2011, the company OCIC received the right to invest in the expansion of the satellite city of Chroy Changvar on 387 hectares of land, which was planned to cost about $1.6 billion. At the time, more than 100 families protested inadequate compensation offers. In 2005, an estimated 300 families lost their homes when pushed off the island of Koh Pich in exchange for a low $10-$12 per square meter, according to a UN Special Rapporteur report from the time.
While the disputes have often made news headlines, the head of OCIC rarely does.
Unlike many of Cambodia's oknhas (an honorific granted by royal decree to anyone who contributes at least U.S. $500,000 to the government) Pung Kheav Se keeps a low profile. A savvy businessman who created one of the country's first private banks following the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Pung Kheav Se is considered to be a close associate of Hun Sen and of his wife, Bun Rany. A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable listed him in 2007 as one of Cambodia's "top 10 tycoons."
“The tycoons help to finance the CPP, contribute greatly to economic growth, and undertake important charitable work such as the construction of schools and hospitals, while reaping the benefits of close government ties,” the cable noted. “However, Hun Sen’s very reliance on his tycoon network may hinder progress in battling corruption, illegal logging, and other sensitive issues that he claims are priorities.”
‘I still would not believe it’
The lengthy list of land disputes tied to OCIC may have residents concerned, but the government has repeatedly stressed all is well.
At last week’s groundbreaking ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister and First Vice President of the Council for the Development of Cambodia, Sun Chanthol, stressed that they would provide reasonable compensation.
"I would like to confirm to you that the Royal Government of Cambodia, with the Ministry of Economy and Finance will study in detail to solve the problem. This effect aims to ensure the provision of appropriate compensation to the people. Therefore, people should trust the government and not worry about this issue," said Sun Chanthol.
But with few concrete details provided even as construction begins, those living along the canal's pathway can't help but worry.
Prek Thmey commune sits on the banks of the Tonle Bassac river, on an underdeveloped stretch of the Phnom Penh peninsula that will soon be severed by the canal.
Once construction proceeds, about 100 families in Prek Ta Hing village will have to move, according to Sran Panha, a local resident. Ever since learning her village would likely be impacted by the canal, she has struggled to sleep.
“I do not dare to believe, I do not dare to say, because what is important is seeing with my eyes,” she said, when asked if she thought she would receive adequate compensation. Though the plans make it clear the village would be impacted, she said, no one has yet come to speak with them about their options.
“Even if the Royal Government says [we would get compensation], I still would not believe it. Only when I see it clearly, then I would dare to believe.”
Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Abby Seiff.