PM Hun Sen orders to gift protected state land to long-term occupants

Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered responsible ministries to give land plot ownership for any citizens living in preserved wildlife and protected areas for more than 10 to 20 years.

According to the PM official Facebook page, the decision has been made during the cabinet meeting last morning (3 July).

“The Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Land should on work on giving out lands for people who have been living for more than 10 to 20 years on the preserved or protected areas, for instance, Koh Kong and Preah Vihear,” said PM Hun Sen.

“The government owns the lands only on the map. However, in fact, those citizens have been building homes and have children on the land more decades,” he added.

PM Hun Sen also added that the work must be thorough, accurate, and must be completed within the next few months.

“We [the government] know that this is a big concern of the people, and we want to address that. We don’t want to let our citizens get scared, starve, and migrate to other countries anymore,” said Samdech Hun Sen.

However, PM Hun Sen also urged those people not to expand more land and preserve some forest and nature nearby for public use.

Besides, PM Hun Sen also warned that for those corrupt officials who conspired to take state land and occupy people’s land will be punished heavily, and those titles which have been issued unlawfully will also be void, according to RFI.

On the same day, the plenary session of cabinet meeting also passed two draft laws, including the Law on State Property Management and User and Law on Commercial Gaming Management. More importantly, the government also allowed all the casinos to reopen after closing for several months due to COVID-19 pandemic.(This news came from Construction-Property.com)