Thailand has gained a US$99.4 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help upgrade some of the country’s highways and improve road safety in the Northeast. []“Transport infrastructure is an important driver of growth for Thailand’s economy,” said Subramaniam. “Improving the country’s road network ...

Thirteen illegal Lao labour immigrants who were rescued from an alleged “slavery farm” in Nakhon Pathom are being treated as witnesses in a suspected human trafficking case. The immigrants, some as young as 15 years old, will not be charged with illegal entry into Thailand because they ...

For centuries Laos has been known as the Land of a Million Elephants. Now there are fewer than 900 of the iconic creatures – and less than half of those are wild. If the population continues to decline at the current rate, elephants will be ...

Life has become different, and easier, for people who live high up in Vietnam’s mountains. That is because electricity has come to places in Lai Chau Province where there had not been electricity in the past. Sometimes people there would make electricity from an oil generator but the ...

Around 100 policies and documents related to ethnic minority groups in the Mekong Delta have been implemented to develop essential infrastructure and production, reduce poverty and improve the living standards of local residents. According to Hung Thi Somaly, an official from the Government’s Committee for Ethnic ...

Global mass extinction from extreme climate change is imminent and we are certainly not ready for it, warn scientists. The first half of this year has been a turbulent one, with many extreme, unusual and unpredictable climate disasters, which cost more than US$30 billion (Bt979 ...

A key gauge of Chinese manufacturing activity plunged to a two-year low in July, an independent survey has showed, the latest data suggesting the world’s second-largest economy faces challenges in the third quarter. The final reading of Caixin’s Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 47.8 for ...

Winit Ritshima and Steven McArthur followed very different career paths. Mr Winit, a Bangkok entrepreneur, started in business making auto parts for locally assembled Mercedes Benz cars. Dr McArthur, based in Sydney, Australia, is the long-time scientific director of Genea, one of the world’s leading ...

The death toll from severe flooding across Myanmar has topped 100, state media have reported, with nearly 1 million people affected as fears intensify for the country’s crucial rice bowl region.  Floods from a heavy monsoon season have cut through South and Southeast Asia in recent ...

The European Union (EU) has donated K2.3 billion (US$1.68 million) to help tens of thousands of victims of tropical cyclone ‘Mora’ in the northern part of Rakhine State, the union said in a statement. The cyclone damaged nearly 50,000 structures in Myanmar, including more than 21,000 ...

Thailand and Burma have agreed to renew negotiations over disputed border demarcations, which had stalled under Burma’s previous government. The agreement was reached during State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent visit to Thailand, according to Burma’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Observers say that Thailand wants to ...

The committee overseeing foreigners’ investment under the foreign Business Act permitted 22 foreigners to invest in Thailand in June, according to the Department of Business Development’s director-general, Vuttikrai Leewiraphan.Most of them are from Japan, Singapore and China with total foreign direct investment (FDI) of Bt1.587 ...

The Investor Confidence Index (ICI) for stocks in the next three months rose by 1.6% from the previous month and remains in the bullish zone as investors expect the Covid-19 vaccination programme to ease the pandemic situation.The upcoming nationwide vaccination drive is the main factor ...

The collapse of a dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in Laos was tragic. Immediate assessments say that 39 people died, many suffered injuries and thousands were left homeless, with their means of income lost for the foreseeable future. Beyond these numbers, ...

Discriminatory practices are holding Burmese migrant women back. “The Burma government doesn’t care that people come to Thailand for work. Sometimes I feel like I want to go home but it’s not any better in Burma. It’s difficult in Thailand, but in Burma there is ...

The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Thailand is pleased to announce the call for applications for the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Academic Fellowships for Spring 2020!The YSEALI Academic Fellowships are intensive short-term academic Institutes whose purpose is to provide groups ...

Vietnam’s Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said yesterday that localities nationwide need to step up efforts to ensure sustainable aquaculture, especially of key products like shrimp and tra fish. Addressing a conference held in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Bac Lieu to review two ...

We are now turning our attention to weather news. This year ‘s hot season has reportedly arrived much sooner than in many previous years. Many provinces have been declared drought disaster zones. The public sector has been preparing for the lack of water.Keep watching ...

Some engineers are always thinking about how to extract more food production from plants, but for American chemical engineer Michael Strano, plants are something more than just a source of food – they are the starting point of technology. Calling himself a nanotechnologist, the professor ...

USAID Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (LinkSME) aims to strengthen the supplier-buyer relationships between Vietnamese SMEs and multinationals located in Vietnam to help local firms participate in global value chains. With a total value of US$22.1 million, the project will be implemented from September ...