[Tlc] C-development

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin

Cambodia Property Boom Enriches, Divides
AP
Posted: 2008-03-09 15:07:11

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - An old hospital was razed to make
way for
Phnom Penh's tallest building - a 42-story twin condominium
tower. A
garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police
evicted its
dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.

Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign
investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling
among the country's few nouveaux riche - while leaving the poor
majority behind.

Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up,
transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of
colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at
the fall
of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.

Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10
percent
have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen
prices
surge over the last few years - though they are still lower
than in
neighboring Vietnam or Thailand. ...

... But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap
between the rich and the poor.

"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day - of course for the
wealthy," said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with
hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field
about 12
miles from the capital.

"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very
unpleasant for their eyes," said the 34-year-old woman who
scavenges
for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living. ...

Full article at:
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/cambodia-property-boom-enriches-divides/n20080309150709990003

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu