Interesting BBC piece on exploitation of Cambodia's resources. The only thing that seems to have changed over the past 30 years is the nationality of those doing the exploiting.

In the mid to late 1990s, French and Malaysian investors attempted, often successfully, to take advantage of Cambodian government officials.

Almost 30 years later, it is Chinese investors although they now deal with a far more sophisticated government apparatus as indicated by the increasing wealth disparity between Cambodian government and business figures and the rest of the population.

Looking back at the land speculation deals dressed up as rice farming projects and the favourable airport concession arrangements, one ultimately unsuccessful deal stands out.

In late 1996 and early 1997, there was a grand plan to erect a sound and light show at Angkor Wat. This proposal would have seen management of the temple complex outsourced to a Malaysian conglomerate which would have had full authority over the area. Cambodians were to be excluded from their own temple other than on particular religious holidays. The Malaysian group was to have total control over the content of the sound and light show and would be entitled to make modifications to the temple complex as they erected their equipment and built fencing.

Equally concerning was the plan to build hotels right up to the front of Angkor Wat, a detrimental step that was unlikely to have ever been reversed.

The contract was a particularly one-sided affair with the Cambodians effectively ceding sovereignty over Angkor to a foreign corporation.

The deal reached an impasse and, in the second half of 1997, an economic tsunami hit Asia. A number of Asian economies fell like dominoes commencing with Thailand. Malaysia enacted currency and capital controls, effectively walling itself off from the rest of Asia.

The economic crisis severely impacted the Malaysian conglomerate and it went home to try to revive its finances. Its grand plans for Angkor Wat came to nothing. The economic crisis had saved what would arguably have been Angkor Wat's destruction.

Today, as tourists return post-Covid to gaze at the wonder of Angkor Wat, they should say a quick thank you to one of the silver linings of the Asian Economic Crisis.

The shadowy Chinese firms that own chunks of Cambodia

October 2023

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