The government yesterday vowed to finish distributing all land titles currently under consideration by 2020.

In a speech, Im Chhun Lim, the minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, said the government was committed to improving land security in Cambodia in its bid to address issues ranging from poverty to deforestation.

“To achieve that goal, the government is giving priority to increasing the pace of land registration and titling,” he said.

According to Chhun Lim, 57 per cent of requested land titles have currently been distributed. By the end of the year, he said, the government has set a target of 65 per cent.

He added that 70 per cent will be provided by 2018, and 100 per cent by 2020.

But while Chhun Lim yesterday espoused the successes of the ministry’s land reforms, long-term disputes continue.

In a July report, local rights group Adhoc said that in the first six months of this year, it received 66 complaints of land rights violations affecting more than 3,500 families on more than 8,600 hectares of land.

Ken Kosal, a community lea­der in Oddar Meanchey’s Samrong town, where locals are locked in a dispute with a military official over an 18-hectare plot of land, had little faith the latest deadlines would be met.

“Some of the land disputes have been going on for a long time – more than five or 10 years – but they still have no solution.”