cambodia The Royal Treatment

How many of you have dreamed of stumbling upon a secret island paradise and transforming it into a posh resort that attracts vacationers from all over the world?

These days, Neak Oknha Kith Meng is living the dream.

Meng is the chairman of Royal Group, which has secured a 99-year lease from the Cambodian government to develop a virtually untouched place called Koh Rong Island. The sparsely populated, 19,000-acre island –- only 1,382 people live there, most of them fishermen who are barely scraping by –- lies about 30 minutes by boat from Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s largest coastal city. Koh Rong is unspoiled and full of possibilities, with pristine beaches and verdant rain forests, and the nation’s tourism officials believe it can become the centerpiece of a destination they’ll market as “the Asian Riviera” or “the Indochina Riviera,” whichever sounds better in a TV commercial.

“This is a place that people haven’t discovered yet,” Meng told Bloomberg in 2008.

They will. Royal Group recently unveiled a master plan for what it’s described as “Asia’s first environmentally planned island.” The company figures to develop about 12,250 acres of Koh Rong with thousands of villas, dozens of hotels, a casino, a hospital, a beach club, restaurants and night clubs, two or three golf courses, and an international airport.

Only one problem: Koh Rong lacks the essential services we all take for granted. Before it can become “the Asian Riviera,” it needs roads, electric power, drinking water, phone lines, sewage systems, even a port where ferries can dock.

To develop all the infrastructure, Meng needs to raise $150 million, maybe $200 million, and he’s enlisted CB Richard Ellis to help him do it.

Of course, Royal Group is good for at least some of the money. Meng’s company, one of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates, owns a bank, an insurance company, an advertising agency, a hotel, a night club, and the nation’s top-rated television station. It sells cell phone and internet service, distributes Samsung and Siemens electronics, and operates a bunch of Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants.

It also has a partner in the golf business.

Royal Group is developing Koh Rong with Millennium Group, a Hong Kong-based firm led by Martin Kaye, who just happens to be a former director of CB Richard Ellis. One of Millennium’s subsidiaries is developing the Dai Beach Eco-Tourism Resort on Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island. Dai Beach will have a 36-hole golf complex.

RoyalGroup.com.kh, MillenniumGroup.net