Cambodia

"People lose their access to land simply so that rich and powerful Cambodians and foreign investors can make profit from cash crops for export."

The UAE has embarked on an overseas investment spree to ensure domestic food security in a country with miniscule arable area -- a spree that will only grow

FIDP has launched a Cambodia and Laos fund, “an extended China play” that will focus largely on agriculture, seeking to benefit from China’s desire for food security.

The Cambodian government’s moves to allocate vast tracts of land to foreign and local companies are often done without consulting local villagers.

In a move to attract foreign investment, Cambodia has awarded big concessions to companies, mainly from China, Vietnam and South Korea, to run mines, power plants and farms, leading to a rise in forced evictions by state officials profiting on the sale and lease of farmland for use by foreign and local companies.

BKK Partners, an Australian financial advisory firm, has a client that wants to buy 100,000 ha of Cambodian farmland. Human rights workers and politicians are concerned.

Leopard Capital's second Cambodian fund is expected to continue investment in agriculture, as well as potentially including investment in Laos.

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the GTZ have published a new study on FDI in land in developing countries.

The high potential in rice investment has intrigued not only China, which is Cambodia's biggest donor, but other donors as well, such as Kuwait, Korea and Japan—given the country’s agricultural sector is the nation’s backbone economy.

Human rights workers said risks to the rural poor over such deals are significant because they are regularly evicted to make way for foreign investors.

Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Plc aims to invest about 15 billion baht over the next five years to double its sugarcane output in Thailand and continuously expand its presence in Cambodia and Laos.

Peter Costello, the former treasurer of Australia, revealed Wednesday he was working with an investment fund that planned to inject US$600 million into Cambodia’s agricultural sector. The projects will cover a vast area, about 100,000 hectares.