Covid-19, gambling ban leave S’ville biz sulking
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Covid-19 and the ban on online gambling have left several businesses in Cambodia’s coastal city Sihanoukville sulking with over 1,500 multi-million building projects reportedly abandoned midway by investors.
The city had a thriving gambling business from 2015 to 2019, but the government suddenly clamped a ban on it in August 2019, forcing many of the investors in the business to leave the country.
The ban was followed by Covid-19, leading to the further flight of Chinese investors, sources in the real estate sector told Khmer Times.
Seeking a solution to their grievances, several developers reportedly met with provincial government officials in early July, with the hope the authorities will provide tax relief and create a land-value index to help with lease negotiations.
They had also sought the government’s help to resolve disputes with landlords by persuading the latter to become stakeholders in the projects.
In recent weeks, the city also witnessed a couple of violent crimes forcing the provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun to warn that in the event of shootings, abductions, drug use and other crimes at casinos and other businesses, strict measures will be enforced including shutting down the establishment.
He warned that provincial authorities would not only shut down the business but also ask the government to revoke the business licence.
Some residents, meanwhile, are of the view that Sihanoukville’s fortunes began to change on June 22, 2019 after a construction site collapse that left 28 workers dead and 26 injured.
Meanwhile, the government is all the more determined to develop Sihanoukville as a model city and is in the process of completing an ambitious masterplan to turn the city into a commercial and logistics hub, besides a tourism hotspot.
Edward Lee, CEO of Prince Real Estate, told Khmer Times that the issue in Sihanoukville now was not about investors leaving but more about not able to come back yet as quite a number of those projects are owned by investors from China and China has still not fully reopened due to its ‘Zero Covid-19’ policy.
“For the last three years, due to Covid, many projects have been temporarily stopped in Sihanoukville, but some will be reactivated for sure. Overall, Cambodia’s real estate sector is recovering faster than its neighbours,” he said.
Lor Vichet, Phnom Penh President of Global Real Estate Association said Sihanoukville was chosen for gambling business by some Philippine investors too after the former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte took a tough stance against the practice.
“In Cambodia, licences were easy to get to start casinos and some of them took advantage of it,” he said, adding that real estate prices too suddenly rose in the city. “But after the ban on online gambling by Cambodian government, these businesses left the country,” he noted, leaving the unfinished constructions as well.
But Tom O’Sullivan, CEO of realestate.com.kh felt that it is not all that bad in Sihanoukville. “The authorities need time to clean up some of the mess left by these gamblers,” he said.
