South-South Dialogue of the GTZ:
First Spatial Planning Law in Cambodia?

During his recent visit (1-8 December 2008) on the occasion of the second South-South Dialogue of the GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) with 13 countries from Africa and Asia in Siem Reap and an interdisciplinary workshop in Phnom Penh, Prof. Magel continued his consulting work with the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA).

A workshop with high-ranking representatives of the international development cooperation and the Council for Land Policy was about developing a philosophy and principles for a spatial planning policy. Therefore Prof. Magel presented a first draft following the experiences of European and German spatial planning and Land Development policy.
The Cambodian side basically signalized to create such a Spatial Planning Policy also for their own country in order to better coordinate the construction activities and development measures which are often uncoordinated due to many pressing investors at the local level.
The next step planned is the formulation of a Spatial Planning Law for Cambodia, with the support of GTZ, the DED (Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst) and other development partners.
A closer cooperation was agreed with the CIM expert Dr. Fabian Thiel of the RUA, a designated expert in the field of land law and land management. Perhaps through him as a "bridgehead" between the RUA-Faculty of Land Management and the TUM-Chair it will yield a fruitful research cooperation.

At the South-South Dialogue of GTZ in Siem Reap Prof. Magel gave a keynote on "New Priorities in Rural Development for achieving Food Security". It was clear that in many developing countries no holistic and integrated development approaches for alleviating these high current crises, which are often linked with the serious problem of poverty and lack of sustainable development, are existing. Prof. Magel pleaded passionately for a return on integrated approaches on rural development, as they are applied with great success for years not only in Europe but also in China.
Finally, Prof. Magel achieved with the representatives of Namibia Polytechnic, further progress regarding the orientation of the "Summer School" planned in July 2009.

Presentation Keynote Speach as pdf » here

Presentation Workshop Input as pdf » here

Workshop "Spatial Planning Policy" in Phnom Penh		Dr. Thomas Christiansen, Head of Department of Land Management, Polytechnic University of Namibia, Windhoek
Xu Xuelin from the Ministry for Land and Ressources, Centre of Land Consolidation in China (on the left side)		Prof. Magel with the Head of Department of Land Management, Royal University of Agriculture (RUA)
Prof. Magel with Vitja Ehlers, a geodesy student at the TU Munich		A brook flowing under the waste - more environmental protection is needed
The governor (on the left image) distributes the cadastral register titles