CAMBODIA Country Profile

Land Administration

Individual Corruption

In Cambodia, many households do not possess title deeds to prove ownership of their land. Without proper documentation, many Cambodians are helpless when faced with land-grabbing practices or eviction.

Cambodians report that when wanting to procure land titles, the procedures in the Department of Land Administration are very time-consuming and often ridden with corruption.

Business Corruption

In general, companies should take note that land leasing will most likely entail considerable red tape and demands for bribes as the Department of Land Administration is notorious for slow procedures and corruption.

By law, foreigners are prohibited from buying land in Cambodia. However, the law states that they can lease it for a term of up to 15 years. Those who have the right to own land are Cambodian individuals and Cambodian legal entities, which are defined as legal entities with at least 51% Cambodian ownership. Nevertheless, one finds cases of foreigners having bought land either directly or through front men. The US Department of State 2009 cautions companies that want to enter into land leasing agreements to check that the land ownership is clearly established beforehand. Companies are advised to conduct a thorough due diligence when dealing with land issues in Cambodia.

Political Corruption

Government officials illicitly expropriate land for themselves or give it to associates, sometimes without payment.

Recent years have seen an increasing number of land-grabbing cases and evictions where wealthy, powerful individuals take land from disadvantaged individuals and/or groups. The land-grabbers use various types of coercion to get people off the land: threats and intimidations, promises of compensation, violence, and if all else fails they bring criminal charges against the rightful owners. One example of the latter is of villagers who were prosecuted for stealing rice they had planted on their own land, but land to which the title was contested by a person who had allegedly bought that piece of land from the military. Concessions to land are secretly sold, even without the knowledge of the rightful owners (often indigenous people). This occurs despite a law that guarantees the collective ownership of land for indigenous groups.

Although foreigners cannot own land in Cambodia and only lease it for a term of 15 years, there are examples of people with high level political contacts who have secured land leases for much longer. One prominent example is that of the wife of the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF), who at one point assisted the Taiwanese company Kingwood in obtaining a rent-free 70-year lease. In return, Kingwood gave her an interest-free loan of nearly USD 500,000.

Frequency

The World Bank & IFC: Doing Business 2009:
- It takes 7 procedures and 56 days to register property, and the cost amounts to more than 4% of the property value.

Transparency International: Global Corruption Barometer 2009:
- 53% of the households surveyed reported to have paid a bribe to land services in 2008.

- 54% of households consider grand or political corruption in land matters to be a 'very serious problem'.

- 20% of respondents consider bribes to land authorities to obtain favourable decisions a 'very serious problem' in Cambodia.