The government has cancelled five economic land concessions totalling nearly 58,000 hectares, saying the concessionaires failed to live up to the terms of their concessions, according to documents obtained yesterday.

“The government has decided not to allow the companies to continue [their] procedures, and has cancelled all investment projects,” the document reads, without going into detail on how the companies had violated their contracts.

Eang Sophalleth, under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, also declined to go into detail on the violations. However, he noted, “there will be more ELC companies [to lose their land] if they do not respect the government’s regulation”.