中韓、カンボジア投資白熱 経済成長年１０％

　年率１０％近い経済成長でアジアの“ライジング・スター”とも称されるカンボジアへの投資熱が高まりを見せている。産業の多角化や外資誘致で成長を目指 す同国に対し中韓企業が投資を拡大させている一方で、タイやマレーシアなどに多くの拠点を持つ日本勢の進出は出遅れており、現地政府も日本企業の投資活性 化に期待を寄せている。

　カンボジアは東南アジア諸国連合（ＡＳＥＡＮ）の中でもトップクラスの経済成長を続けている。２００５年に経済成長率１３・４％を達成し０７年 見込みは９・５％、０８年の見通しも８％と１０％近い。情勢が安定したカンボジアは、中国やタイといったアジアの生産拠点で人件費や賃貸料が上昇しコスト 競争力が失われていく中で、低廉な労働力を確保できる新たな投資先として注目を集めている。

　対カンボジアの０６年国別投資額（認可ベース）は１位が韓国の約１０億ドルで、２位の中国が約７億ドル。１９９４～０７年の投資累計では１位がマレーシアの約２１億９７００万ドル、続く中国が約１７億６１００万ドルとなっている。

　一方、日本の０６年投資額は約２００万ドルの１４位で、韓国の５００分の１にすぎない。９４年からの累計額も約１億３５００万ドルと２位中国の １３分の１だ。政府関係者は「日本企業の関心は最近高まっていて投資も増えているが、慎重なのかスピードが他国に比べ遅い」と指摘する。

　カンボジアは７０年代のポル・ポト政権時代から内戦が続き、外資誘致など産業復興に注力する状況ではなかったが、９８年の総選挙を機に政情が安 定化。政府は、世界でも有数の遺跡のアンコールワットを呼び水に観光産業を育成したほか、繊維や鉱物、水力発電、資源エネルギーなど産業の多角化により経 済成長を促進している。

　さらに、外資誘致では１１カ所の経済特区を設置し通関手続きの簡素化や法人税免除などの優遇政策を展開し、外資の資金力と技術力を取り入れて産 業のてこ入れを図っている。最低賃金は月４５ドルと安く、政府関係者は「労働者は勤勉で、タイやマレーシアなど周辺国に拠点を持つ企業が進出しやすい」と カンボジア投資の魅力を強調。中国や韓国は政府支援を強化し民間企業の進出が加速している。

　ただ、インドシナ地域を横断する運輸インフラの東西回廊によって流通網が整備されつつあるものの、大手商社からは「インフラ整備がまだまだ必要」とカンボジア政府や日本の政府開発援助（ＯＤＡ）による法制度も含めた事業環境の整備を求める声も強い。（坂本一之）

Cambodia's thriving real estate market enriches the elite

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building _ a 42-story twin condominium tower. A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.

Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling among the country's few nouveaux riche _ while leaving the poor majority behind. Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up, transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.

Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10 percent have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen prices surge over the last few years _ though they are still lower than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand.

"Cambodia was sleeping for many years and now it's waking up,'' said Claire Brown, managing director of Britain-based Claire Brown Realty who began buying and selling property in Phnom Penh two years ago.

"Everybody wants to get a piece of the action,'' she said by phone. "The time to get in is now because soon it's going to be too late.''

Prime city land prices have tripled over the last two years to US$3,000 (euro2,000) per square meter. Those kinds of returns have drawn rich and middle-class Cambodians, as well as those living abroad.

"In buying and selling land, they could get profit 100 or 200 percent a year, if they make the right bet on the right location,'' said Dith Channa, the sale manager of CPL Cambodia Properties Ltd., a Phnom Penh-based real estate agency.

But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day _ of course for the wealthy,'' said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the capital.

"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very unpleasant for their eyes,'' said the 34-year-old woman who scavenges for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living.

The flourishing property market is also happening in the shadow of problems of land rights disputes that, in recent years, have often pitted the poor against wealthy developers with links to the Cambodian political establishment.

"We're moving toward possibly about 10 percent of the population owning 90 percent of the land in Cambodia,'' said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit human rights group Licadho.

That could fan social and political unrest, she and others have warned.

The biggest projects are being funded by South Korean investors and companies, which have been the leading investors in Cambodia following the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1997.

Investment and tourists from South Korea have surged following a 2006 visit to Cambodia by former President Roh Moo-hyun.

World City Co. Ltd., a South Korean company, is investing US$2 billion (euro1.3 billion) to build a "satellite'' urban complex called Camko City on a 120-hectare (300-acre) area on the northwest side of Phnom Penh. The project, the single biggest foreign direct investment in Cambodia to date, will include residential, commercial and public facilities _ villas, condos, trade and financial centers, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, schools and hospitals.

Meanwhile, at a busy corner leading up to the city's landmark Independence Monument, an old government hospital has been torn down to make way for a 42-story condominium and shopping complex worth about US$250 million (euro162 million). That's going to dramatically change Phnom Penh's skyline, where the tallest building now is a 15-story hotel.

It is going to be the first luxury residential building and tallest structure in Cambodia, said Kim Tae-Yeon, chairman of Yon Woo Inc., a South Korean developer.

Kim said the towers will have about 500 units of apartments, office space and retail shops with price tags ranging from US$112,000 (euro72,647) to US$1.8 million (euro1.17 million) a unit. Construction will start next month and take 3 1/2 years to complete, but Kim said nearly half of the units have already been bought.

In recent years, Siem Reap, a northwestern town near the famed Angkor Wat ruins, also has seen a frenzy of hotel and guesthouse construction for the growing numbers of tourists.

Thrilled with the boom, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said it has been made possible by the political stability he has brought. In a recent speech he warned that if he is not re-elected in July elections, property prices could nosedive.

"It was a threat, a dirty trick to gain votes,'' said Son Chhay, an opposition party lawmaker.

Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.

"This is not going to be healthy for the Cambodian economy,'' Son Chhay says.

There are also concerns that the rapid price gains are creating a bubble that will eventually pop.

Eric Sidgwick, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank office in Phnom Penh, said the real estate market has been "driven by a combination of genuine demand for business-related and residential construction,'' as well as a growing population, increased urbanization and speculation.

Still, there were "reasons to be concerned about the recent increase in real estate prices and the dangers of further inflating a speculation-led bubble,'' he said in an e-mail. He declined to comment about any possible link between money laundering and the property market boom.

Meanwhile, poor residents like Chhorn Et, the former slum dweller who was moved outside the capital, are left to cope with a stark reality in their new village, which has no running water or sewage system.

Although each family has been given a small piece of land, they complain of the lack of means to support their livelihoods. They have to travel daily to the capital to do odd jobs as motorbike taxi drivers, construction workers or scavenge for bottles and cans to sell to buy food.

Many of them are too poor to afford a latrine and have to use a nearby rice field as a toilet, said 37-year-old Mom Somaly, a mother of five children.

Pointing to a distant land-for-sale sign, she said "soon they may not even have a field to use as toilet any longer.''

Thailand to assist Cambodia with bilateral development projects

BANGKOK, March 3 (TNA) - Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Monday his visit to Cambodia had achieved productive bilateral cooperations including projects on energy, infrastructure and business.

After having met with Cambodian Leader Hun Sen, Mr. Samak said Thailand’s assistance to Cambodia would be beneficial to both countries, especially the highway 68 construction project with an additional budget on top of the 1.4 billion baht (US$43.7 million) already allocated.

The road will connect Thailand’s Surin province to Cambodia’s Siem Riep, and seen as an opportunity to boost the tourism industry in the region.

Prime Minister Samak also said Thailand would build a coal-fired power plant on Cambodia's Koh Kong.

The Thai premier also said he had discussed with his Cambodian counterpart border demarcation on overlapping zones which he described as a “win-win situation” if the zones could be developed as tourist attractions.

Both leaders also discussed criminal extradition and Cambodia’s proposal to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization or UNESCO to list the Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site.

Mr. Samak reiterated such a listing would not affect Thailand since it would include only the temple, not its complex. Therefore, the premier believed, it would not affect the demarcation of Thailand and Cambodia.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague in June 1962 judged that Preah Vihear belonged to Cambodia, but Thailand and Cambodia have not yet settled a demarcation agreement on land around the ruins. The temple is approached from the Thai border district of Kantharalak in Si Sa Ket province. (TNA)