KPP to Build Free Houses Along Cambodia-Vietnam Border

Khmer Times/Tin Sokhavuth

 

Thursday, 14 January 2016

 

Sourn Serey Ratha, President of the Khmer Power Party (KPP), spoke to reporters after being questioned by Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday. 
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In an effort to populate the area along the Cambodia-Vietnam border with Cambodians, president of the Khmer Power Party (KPP) Sourn Serey Ratha told Khmer Times yesterday that his party planned to build 16 houses for voluntary inhabitants in the area surrounding the Paknam Pagoda in Kandal province’s Koh Thom district. 
 

“For the first step, we will build 16 houses in Paknam pagoda. Each house will cost around $1,800. The abbot of the pagoda has already given us some plots of land for those houses,” said Mr. Ratha. 
 

Most of the current inhabitants in the area are Vietnamese immigrants.
 

A police officer in Koh Thom district, who asked to remain nameless, told Khmer Times that claims of Vietnamese prevalence surrounding the pagoda were true.
 

As of now, only ten families have volunteers to live in the KPP’s houses. Mr. Ratha’s party will build all 16 houses once they have agreements settled for all 16 families to move in.
 

He also said that for those people who once owned land in the area along the border but had since moved, his party could help them build new houses if they wished to return. 
 

As for the new settlers’ employment, Mr. Ratha said there would be enough land around their homes to farm and garden. The soil itself is very fertile, he said, and any kind of crop could be grown in it and then sold in the relatively close-by Phnom Penh.
 

Mr. Ratha’s party also plans to create a vocational training center for the new settlers in order to help them find work.
 

“If we succeed in building 16 houses in Paknam Pagoda and Cambodian people will go to settle there, we will also build houses along the Cambodian-Vietnamese border in Romeas Hek district, Svay Rieng province, for Cambodians to live there too,” said Mr. Ratha.
 

When asked about the money it will take to build the houses, Mr. Ratha said that it was contributed by Cambodians living abroad in places like the United States and Canada.
 

In the near future, the KPP plans to spend around $200,000 to build 100 houses for Cambodian nationals along the Cambodia-Vietnam border.
 

Spokesman for the CPP Sok Ey San told Khmer Times that he welcomed this move. It was a good idea, he said, adding that the KPP should also build infrastructure such as roads, wells, schools and hospitals for the new settlers, not just the houses.
 

“But we must respect the border-line between the two countries. Concerning the issue of the Vietnamese immigrants living on Cambodian soil along the border, the Ministry of Interior knows already how to solve this problem,” said Mr. Ey San.