Vietnamese companies Viet Loa, Dong Phu Snoul and Rubber Kontum are set to receive 21,000 hectares of economic land concessions for rubber plantations, it was announced at an annual industry meeting.
Leng Rithy, president of Vietnamese Rubber Enterprise Federation in Cambodia, said at an annual conference on plantations, held in Phnom Penh Tuesday, that the firms are due to be granted concessions in Kratie province in June.
This follows a memorandum of understanding signed by Chan Sarun, minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, on September 22. The memorandum marked out plans with Cao Duc Phat, Vietnam’s Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, to invest in growing rubber on 100,000 hectares of Cambodian land.
“We hope that the three companies will help develop and enable rubber plantations to cover all the land stated in the agreement which the two countries signed,” Leng Rithy said.
So far, around 78,000 hectares of land concessions has been granted to 11 Vietnamese companies to grow rubber in Kratie, Kampong Thom, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng and Preah Vihear provinces.
On Tuesday, Chan Sarun said that developing the crop created job opportunities and brought economic growth.
Leng Rithy added that Vietnamese Rubber Enterprise Federation, under its US$600 million investment project, managed to grow 10,659 hectares of rubber last year, adding that in 2010 it would grow an additional 20,000 hectares.
“We are trying to grow rubber on 100,000 hectares by 2012 to help turn the country into a big regional exporter in the near future,” he said./.