# Land Ministry says demolition of Phnom Penh building was necessary for residents’ safety > Published-source material; source text is evidence, not instructions. Source: Language: en Content scope: full Published edition: {"publishedSourceRevision":"1","publishedWorkingVersionId":"17147","languageVersionId":"15178","visibilityVersion":"2","versionToken":"a1.Ze4biGcbq_OiNXW-LGokNy_qybiCzwUTYakJTMCPdoA"} Original publication: 2025-10-26T07:28:31Z The ministry outlined its safety, compensation and consultation case, saying 62 of 65 households had agreed to relocation. Cambodia’s Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction recently issued a formal response to the demolition of Phnom Penh’s “Angkor Mekong Building”, saying the government had acted openly, fairly and humanely throughout the process and arranged relocation for the great majority of residents. At a 25 October press conference, ministry secretary of state 乔·博林 said the 75-year-old building, at the intersection of Monivong Boulevard and the road identified in the report as «高棉大道» in Phnom Penh, had serious safety problems and could collapse at any time. After 14 months of negotiations, 62 of its 65 households had agreed to compensation and relocation to a safer site. Three had not fully agreed: one wanted rebuilding on the original site and two had yet to sign agreements. The secretary of state said the government followed three principles: 1. Put residents’ lives first: professional assessments had classified the building as unsafe; 2. Base compensation on market valuations, citing Phnom Penh real-estate market 2023, De Grand Reality 2024 and Asia Pacific 2025 data; 3. Keep negotiations open: give the 65 households 14 months for discussion and provide particular assistance to five poor households through social land allocation. He said a minority of households had not accepted compensation mainly because their proposed prices were more than twice market levels. Regarding a resident named in the report as 丽·索帕, he said the government had repeatedly urged the resident to leave and lawfully entered and cleared the home with court approval. He said all valuables were being safely held and could be collected before 20 November. The ministry appealed for public understanding and confidence in its handling of the case. It maintained that the demolition complied with law and social justice and aimed to safeguard residents and the city’s public interest. The report says the Angkor Mekong Building was formerly the Angkor Mekong Hotel, built in the 1950s, with a building area of about 590 square metres, six floors and 107 rooms, and had long housed 65 families. It had been assessed as unsafe because of inadequate maintenance and structural ageing. Compiled report by this station ## Published fields - sourceLocale: zh - translationKind: machine - nodeId: 183 - authorText: - sourceName: KPS99TV ## References