How very strange. What could be going on now ? First Otres, now this. I thought Royal group were more or less untouchable. There was talk of them building a big tourist port in SV harbour to take tourists out to Ko Rong after the pier at Otres was declared illegal. Any news on that ?

Gov’t halts building of Koh Rong island port
Wed, 15 June 2016
Mech Dara

A Sihanoukville provincial coastal working group has ordered tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group to stop building a port on Koh Rong, saying the development was illegal.

“The company has the legal right to invest in Koh Rong from the state, but on June 7, the provincial working group had to stop the construction of the port because it was illegal,” said Sihanoukville City Governor Y Sokleng, adding that the city had not received legal documents.

Sokleng said construction of the port had just begun with only five pillars in place.

Royal Group’s liason and business development manager Remy Khin said he could not talk about the issue when reached for comment.

In January, Royal Group was ordered to stop construction of a passenger port on Sihanoukville’s Otres Beach, citing violation of coastal development guidelines and lack of a permit.

In 2008, the Cambodian government granted the Royal Group a 99-year concession to develop Koh Rong island. Construction of the company’s first five-star hotel on the island, scheduled for completion in late 2016, is underway.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/g ... sland-port

somebody in the government has the green eye disease, watching someone else making so much money is a bitchy feeling

Could be something to do with this ?
Gov’t signs off on Koh Rong protected habitat
Photo: Paul Colley

The Cambodian government has signed off on the Kingdom’s first dedicated marine protection area in a bid to save the Koh Rong Archipelago’s coral reef and sea life.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries signed an agreement late last week designating more than 400 square kilometres as a protected marine management area around the islands, located 20 kilometres off the coast of Sihanoukville...

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/g ... ign=buffer
I hope they do just as good a job of protecting the marine life as they have of protecting the forest nature reserves.

The Royal Sands Koh Rong Resort will not be completed by the end of 2016 as announced. The project may be more expensive than anticipated.

Koh Rong development plan tied up in red tape
Wed, 22 June 2016
Cheng Sokhorng and Kali Kotoski

The Royal Group’s $30-million luxury resort on Koh Rong island will not be completed on schedule as the company has faced numerous port development issues and, according to company management, a snarl of red tape.

Royal Sands Koh Rong Resort, the first phase of tycoon Kith Meng’s massive development of an island 25 kilometres off the coast of Sihanoukville, has repeatedly come under scrutiny since it officially broke ground last December. The project was planned to be completed by the end of 2016.
“A few problems have come up so there has been a slowdown [in development],” said Kith Thieng, vice chairman and managing director of The Royal Group.

Chhun Buntha, vice chairman of Royal Sands Koh Rong Resort, said the project’s timeline was extended after a series of challenges by local government officials.

“So far, we have only built 10 villas, which only counts for just 10 per cent of our plan,” he said. “We have had to delay completion of the resort until sometime in 2017.”

Despite the project having full governmental approval and support, he said “problems have occurred with local officials because of their slow administrative policies and confusion over what has been approved.”

The project faced its first challenge in January when a government committee ordered the company to halt construction of a 40-metre-long jetty it was building on Sihanoukville’s Otres beach, citing violation of coastal development guidelines and lack of a permit. Then, just last week, government officials ordered a halt to construction of a port on Koh Rong after raising similar concerns...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/k ... d-red-tape

This is selective enforcement. The Chinese are raping Ream Park with the blessing of the government, but stopping this project. Can you say $$$$$$$$?

jaynewcastle wrote:If the Royal Sands Koh Rong resort is at the south end of Sok San beach, then its disgusting what they've been allowed to do. This is what I posted on TA in Feb 2016

"I have just been over to Sok San beach today, got the ferry over to Koh Rong & then a 90min walk up over the hill, through the jungle & down through the rocks, and was going to post something tonight about what has happened in the last 12 months there since I last visited.

Have to admit I was quite shocked & devastated at whats happened in the name of development in the last 12 months at the southern end of what was a beautiful completely empty natural stunning beach, since I last visited.
The huge concrete pier has been constructed, & around 2km of shoreline just bulldozed up to 300m or so into the jungle. Most of it looks like a lunar landscape, & there are already about a dozen concrete buildings constructed with probably hundreds more to come.

Getting a longtail boat back around to the main pier, a new road has been bulldozed & carved nearly all the way around the southern part of the island, carving a huge scar through the previously untouched natural jungle, virtually all the way to the main pier.Have to admit I was quite shocked & disappointed at whats been done. Just very happy to have visited the beach last year before the destruction started"

Thanks for posting that. Shame you didn't get some photos. Nobody seems to know much about what's going on there.
This photo's from the PPP article. I suppose it's the jetty under construction ?
If anyone has some better pics from Koh Rong recently... feel free to post them.

The road was stopped this time last year: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/r ... -rong-road. I'm pretty sure that was when the work on the new docks near Koh Toch village stopped work. They have obviously restarted (then stopped) on the docks, otherwise they would be finished by now.