Speech to be delivered by H.E. Senior Minister of MLMUPC

At the 3^rd CDCF (2-3 June, 2010 at Government Building)

·         Dear Your Excellency Deputy Prime Minister

·         Dear Your Excellency Senior Ministers, Ministers

·         Excellencies, Madams, Ladies and Gentlemen, National and International distinguished guests, Development Partners and Civil Society Representatives!

(In response to the agricultural statement), MLMUPC, on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, has been taking great efforts to promote and protect the land rights of smallholders and indigenous communities.

• With regard to the systematic land registration, the RGC implements in compliance with the legal framework, meaning that the RGC helps all the rich and poor and vulnerable people who occupy the land legally. The systematic land registration is done village by village with transparency and equality by law, and without discrimination. Until this date, the systematic land registration has covered 16 municipalities/provinces, 50 districts/khans, 275 communes/sangkats, and 2321 villages. The achieved outcomes include: collection of 1,860.000 land parcels, complete public display of 166,0000 land parcels, signing of 139,0000 land titles, and delivery to people of 1,316.000 titles. Separately for the sporadic land registration, we have made 596,000 land parcels, including Pre-LMAP of 80,000 parcels – so totally the number of titles delivered to people is almost 2 millions. These are the efforts made by the RGC with fully support of Development Partners and with fully participation of land owners leading to achieve such great results.
• With regard to the indigenous land registration, the International Parliament Union (IPU) has recognized and appreciated the effort being made by the RGC in promoting the land rights of all indigenous communities in Cambodia. MLMUPC will establish and train the provincial land registration teams to better promote and protect the rights of indigenous peoples’ land.

In relation to the issues of Social Land Concessions (SLCs), the RGC has been working very hard to strengthen this mechanism. Typically, under the order of Samdech Akak Techo Hun Sen, the General Secretariat of SLCs has conducted a preliminary research for land availability in 16 provinces. From this research, the General Secretariat of SLCs has found that available land of 49 locations with 13,0000 hectares are suitable for SLCs; the working group will continue to study on the land quality and do the demarcation. At the same time, the RGC is also making its effort to improve land dispute resolutions mechanism through the Cadastral Commission, having delegated decision-making power to the provincial level.

Separately, in response to the Positions Paper of NGOs on Cambodia Development 2009 – 2010 for the 3^rd CDCF, MLMUPC feels that the criticism made by these NGOs is totally not true, as the criticism holds against the commitment and effort of the RGC in implementing the Land Sector Reform Program. Furthermore, with regard to the case studies in Phnom Penh and other urban areas, these NGOs looked at only one angle/aspect of “rights” issue, and not considered the “responsibility and legality”. More importantly, this paper based entirely on the reports of NGOs themselves, without consultation with the direct implementing institutions (such as LMAP, etc).  The RGC, therefore, concludes that the assessment and criticism made by NGOs are implausible and not acceptable.