7NG courts Korean investors

Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON

A bulldozer moves ground Monday as labourers build what 7NG says will be a car park at the Dey Krahorm site in central Phnom Penh

CAMBODIAN property developer 7NG Group is in talks with potential South Korean investors to raise money for a commercial project on land at the centre of a major eviction controversy earlier this year.

7NG Managing Director Srey Chanthou did not name the investors considering jointly developing the 3.6-hectare Dey Krahorm site, located on prime real estate in Phnom Penh’s Chamkarmorn district, but said the project would be finalised next year.

“At the beginning of 2010, we will know clearly,” he said. “This is a big project; we need time to study more detail on this project.”

Construction work began at the site last week, but Srey Chanthou said workers were erecting a temporary car park to house the cars of 7NG staff, who work at a nearby office, until the final deal on the site goes through.

“We don’t know yet when we will start building or how much money we will use to invest in this business,” he added.

Tonle Bassac commune Chief Khat Narith said he did not know of any plans for the development of the land.

Kim Hyun-ki, a communications officer from the South Korean embassy in Jakarta, currently based at the embassy in Phnom Penh, said Korean officials based in the capital were not aware of a deal between 7NG and a Korean firm.

On January 24, more than 100 families were forcibly evicted from the Dey Krahorm site, an action Raquel Rolnik, the UN’s special rapporteur for adequate housing, described as a “grave breach” of human rights. At the time, 7NG Chairman Srey Sothea told the Post that the land would be used for a “modern commercial centre including hotels and supermarkets”