Hunsenomics and Its Discontents - Hun Sen's Cambodia - page 133

the state oil company, Compagnie Kampuchea des Carburants, for $10.6 million (another
closed bid) and took over its fuel storage depots in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. 8 The
company now runs a national distribution network that includes five storage terminals
and a fuel import jetty in Sihanoukville able to handle 46,000-ton oil tankers. 9 The only
petrol firm boasting better connections is Kampuchea Tela Co., Ltd., which is partially
owned by Hun Sen's daughter Hun Mana. Between them, the two firms control the lion's
share of the domestic petrol market.
Kong reportedly earned Hun Sen's gratitude during his seizure of power in July 1997,
when Sokimex kept the CPP's forces supplied with free fuel. 10 The rewards quickly fol-
lowed. After the lucrative Angkor concession in 1999, Sokha Hotels was awarded the
right to develop the site of an old French prison in central Siem Reap, where it soon built
a five-star resort. 11 Later it received similar rights to the abandoned colonial hill-station
at Bokor Mountain in Kampot, where a rococo hotel-casino complex opened its doors in
2012. Sokimex has also expanded its portfolio to include garment factories, rubber plant-
ations, property development, and a small private airline.
The rise and rise of Sokimex is a typical example of the political favor and secrecy that
characterize capitalism, Cambodia-style. Over the past two decades, those who supported
Hun Sen's rise have been rewarded with access to the impoverished country's resources:
land, forests, fisheries, mining concessions, air routes, ship registrations, stadiums, pris-
ons, courts, hospitals, agribusiness concessions, and ministry buildings. The main bene-
ficiaries have been a handful of Cambodian and Sino-Khmer tycoons who emerged from
humble beginnings and rose in parallel with Hun Sen. Madame Lim Chhiv Ho, the head
of the powerful Attwood Group conglomerate, once sold noodles at the Russian Market.
Oknha Sam Ang and Madame Chhun Leang, the husband-and-wife founders of the Vat-
tanac Bank (and owners of a White House-sized mansion on Norodom Boulevard) ar-
rived in Phnom Penh on bicycles in 1979.
Hun Sen's old foreign ministry allies from the 1980s have been similarly well rewar-
ded. Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, Hun Sen's bureaucratic Kali, has built a fortune
through his control of the Council of Ministers and his links to prominent Sino-Khmer
business families, whom he meets for daily meetings at luxury hotels around Phnom
Penh. Another former aide, Cham Prasidh, served as minister of commerce from 1994
until 2013, and remains a close ally of the prime minister. His wife, Tep Bopha Prasidh,
a formidable businesswoman, is also friends with Bun Rany and owns shares in several
leading corporations. Son Chhay estimates each family to be worth more than $1 billion.
Today, Cambodia's economy is controlled by this new quasi-palace elite: a sprawling
network of CPP politicians, military brass, and business families arranged in vertical kh-
sae , or “strings,” of patronage emanating from Hun Sen and his close associates. Given
the dearth of trust in Cambodian society, political and financial ties are frequently con-