The government has agreed in principle to lease more than 370ha of state public land in Koh Kong province’s Sre Ambel district to a private company with plans to develop a natural crab aquaculture area and a small port.

Ministry of Environment secretary of state Srun Darith and Koh Kong provincial deputy governor Uk Sopheak held a meeting on September 4 to establish an inter-ministerial working group tasked with evaluating the projects and their impacts on the land.

The two proposed projects would consist of a natural crab aquaculture farm on 369ha and the construction of a small port on 7,767sqm.

Darith instructed company representatives to prepare detailed presentations of their plans and to request the planting of boundary posts, after which the working group will study and evaluate the lease on the land owned by the state again with the Ministry of Economy and Finance being the main institution for evaluating the lease.

“These two projects are very important to raising the living standards of the local people and they could help the national economy,” he said.

Koh Kong deputy provincial governor Sok Sothy explained on September 5 that the government had the right to lease the land in Sre Ambel district to investment companies and that the provincial administration would only act in its capacity as local authorities.

He said the legal procedure for leasing state public land was the competency of the environment ministry, because all state land leased to investment companies falls under its jurisdiction.

Sothy said the company would have to follow all of the necessary steps in order to pursue this investment, but if approval is given he felt that the new investment projects would spur growth, development and the economy in Koh Kong and also provide job opportunities to local people.