Cambodia provides land for retired armed forces: PM

kang

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday the government will provide land for families of retired armed forces including military police, police, and soldiers for planting agricultural corps.

"It will be a big system of social safety and welfare for retired armed forces and we want to transfer the non production forces to the production forces because they have land for planting agricultural crops to survive as pension," he said at the ceremony of releasing the final result of 2008 population census.

"With the land, those armed forces will not be fallen into poor after they retired from the positions," he said, adding that we need at least 30,000 or 40,000 hectares of land for those armed forces.

"Those plots of lands will come from the economic concession land which private side did not follow the contract and were taken back by government to be transferred into social concession land for armed forces," Hun Sen said, adding that Ministry of Economy and Finance will organize the project with the legal regulations.

Khieu Kanarith, government spokesman and information minister said that the retired armed forces will not be allowed to sell, transfer or rented those land but they have to plant agricultural crops for their living conditions.

The soldier families will get a plot of land about a hectare or two hectares.