Opening Remarks at the National Land Forum in Cambodia

By
Nisha Agrawal
Country Manager,Cambodia
The World Bank Group
October 18, 2004

Samdech Prime Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a great pleasure to join you today for the opening of this National Land Forum.  With the launch of the Rectangular Strategy on 16 July 2004, the Royal Government has signaled its clear commitment to address issues of governance in support of economic growth and poverty reduction.  This Forum is an opportunity to justly acknowledge the progress which Cambodia is making in addressing land issues, but also is the opportunity to recognize how great the challenge is ahead of us and commit together to overcome this challenge.

During my brief time here in Cambodia, I have had the opportunity to visit a number of provinces where I have discussed the main development issues in Cambodia with provincial officials, villagers and civil society groups.  In all of these discussions, the issue of land and governance has come up as a major problem. 

In my visit to Ratanakiri, indigenous groups expressed their worries that tourism development is leading to increased purchase or grabbing of communal lands by speculators.  Near Pailin, I was told by villagers that vast areas of unused state land are controlled by powerful people who leave the land idle while landlessness increases amongst the poor.  In Kampong Cham, we have seen increasing conflicts between villagers and Government over degraded forest lands.  Throughout Cambodia we see large areas of economic concessions with little or no investment.  And in our work with legal and judicial reform we find that as much as 80 percent of court cases involving the poor involve land disputes.  Clearly in Cambodia, if we care about the poor, if we care about rural economic growth, and if we care about justice, we must care greatly about land.

In the World Bank’s new Country Assistance Strategy, which we are preparing in close collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, UK’s DFID, and the UN System, we have focused on four areas of governance where we feel we bring particular experience and expertise, and where Government has clearly signaled its intention to move forward with reforms.  These four areas are 1) strengthening the investment climate for private sector growth, 2) better public financial management for service delivery, 3) support to decentralization and deconcentration to enhance accountability, and 4) improving access of the poor to natural resources – particularly land. 

Why natural resources and land?

• First of all, Cambodia is not a poor country in terms of natural resources – it has amongst the highest per capita endowments of land, forests, water and fisheries in East Asia.
• Secondly, with 70 percent of the total population and 80 percent of the poor living in rural areas, better management of natural resources, and particularly land,  is obviously critical to achieving economic growth which benefits all Cambodians.
• Thirdly, the experience throughout the world, and particularly here in East Asia, shows clearly that rapid and broad-based growth can be achieved if land resources are managed to the benefit of all citizens.  In fact countries which have more equitable distributions of land have historically grown two to three times faster than countries with more unequal distribution of land. 

So how do we move forward?  Our experience in support of reforms in the management of land throughout the world indicate two clear factors:

• First, we must ensure the security of access to the land resources through an appropriate legal framework, land registration and dispute resolution.
• Second, we must ensure that those lands in the domain of the state are managed efficiently, consistent with Cambodia’s environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and economic growth objectives.

Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law and Interim Strategy of Land Policy Framework provide the starting point for addressing these issues, and we are committed to supporting their implementation. 

We are working with the Royal Government and the Governments of Germany, Finland,  Canada, and the Asian Development Bank to strengthen the security of access to land for the poor through the  Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP).  We wish to congratulate the Royal Government, and particularly the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, on the progress and partnerships achieved under this program in establishing transparent and accessible mechanisms for providing land titles to communities today, as well as developing policies, dispute resolution mechanisms and institutional strengthening as the basis for strengthening land rights in the future. 

Based on the progress made under LMAP, we are discussing with Government further support for securing land rights, including ensuring the communal rights of indigenous communities and ensuring just compensation for resettlement for those impacted by development projects.

We are also committed to support improvements in the management of the 75 to 80 percent of Cambodia’s land area which is classified as state land.  The World Bank and other partners are now working with a multi-ministerial preparation team from the Council for Land Policy in the preparation of the Land Allocation for Social and Economic Development Project to ensure that those state lands best suited for agricultural production are made available to those who can use them most effectively.  This project will support the bringing together of people, land and market opportunities – including distribution of land to the landless and land-poor - into the kind of dynamic, smallholder based agriculture which has driven the rapid economic growth of so many of Cambodia’s Asian partners. 

These reforms are not new to us in the World Bank.  We have worked with countries throughout the world on their implementation and we are pleased to be able to share this experience with the Cambodian people as you find Cambodian solutions to these common challenges. 

However, there is one thing that has been critical for the success of these difficult reforms in every county, and that is political will.  There are no stronger vested interests to overcome than those which have gained control of large areas of land for speculative purposes. 

Samdech Prime Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Achieving the promises of the Rectangular Strategy will require some tough decisions and even tougher actions including reform of non-performing economic land concessions, recovery of illegally obtained state lands, and transparent and accountable distribution of land to the poor. 

These are not easy reforms to undertake and we should not underestimate the resistance to the reforms ahead of us.  However we can assure you that as long as the Royal Government demonstrates its commitment to reforming the way land is managed in Cambodia, we will demonstrate our commitment to work with you and your partners so that land will no longer be viewed as the primary example of Cambodia’s governance problems, but, instead, as the shining basis for Cambodia’s success in achieving rapid growth and poverty reduction.

Thank you.