Nagacorp eyes Buddhist land, confrontation looms

In Cambodia, the country’s casino owner NagaCorp may be heading for a confrontation with militant Buddhist monks over the company’s plans to develop a non casino hotel complex on a site currently occupied by the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Phen. 
A report in the Phnom Penh Post quotes a transcript of a conference call to investors by NagaCorp’s CFO Philip Lee, that the company had plans for Naga3 which would result in relocating the Buddhist Institute. “Now, it is important to note that … presently Naga3 is very much in planning. It is conceptual. We are in discussions with the authorities to develop that location,” the newspaper quotes Lee as saying, noting that the call’s transcript has now been removed from the company’s website.
The leader of the Independent Monk Network But Buntenh who led protests against NagaCorp’s plans in May told the newspaper he had heard about the Naga3 project from staffers at the institute. “If the government approves it, we will have a big protest against the land of the Buddhist Institute being sold to the gambling company,” he said.
NagaCorp has construction sites which now entirely surround the Buddhist Institute. Construction of its NagaWalk retail project is nearly complete and construction of its $370 million Naga2 project is due for completion in early 2017. NagaCorp’s expansion has long fueled rumours that the institute’s land is slowly being sold off to accommodate the casino operator’s proposals, the Post reports.
Mark Brown, the COO for casino operator NagaWorld confirmed the company was in talks with the Cambodian government over the land. Brown told the Post in an email “We hope we can convince the government to grant the rights of usage of the land which, unfortunately, has not been obtained yet.”