The National Center for Hydro-meteorological forecasting has reported unusual flooding in the Red River in northern Vietnam since 11 October following heavy inflows from China, where massive volumes of water have allegedly been discharged from dams.   Though there has been no human casualty, the flooding has ...

Organisations in Vietnam are facing longer downtimes caused by cybersecurity breaches, compared to the regional and global averages, according to a recent Cisco study. The Cisco’s 2019 Asia Pacific CISO Benchmark Study was released this week. Almost a third of companies in Vietnam were offline for 24 hours or ...

More Montagnard asylum seekers are planning to return to home amid cuts in United Nations-provided food rations. Vivian Tan, regional spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said more than 10 indigenous Christian Montagnards had requested assistance in returning to Vietnam. She said the group had decided ...

South Korea is urging Thailand to spearhead the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (Acmecs) for sustainable water management, after President Moon Jae-in met with Asean leaders last month in Busan under Thailand’s year-long chairmanship. Thailand co-chaired the 2019 Asean-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit and the first ...

A total of 135 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar since the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup that overthrew civilian rule in that country, according to a local press freedoms group. Among those arrested, 109 were men and 26 were women, while three other journalists were ...

Police in Myanmar have seized South East Asia’s biggest ever haul of synthetic drugs, the scale of which they described as “off the charts”. More than 200m methamphetamine tablets, 500kg of crystal methamphetamine and 300kg of heroin were found in raids in north-east Shan state. Thirty-three people ...

TIJ-UNODC, with a team from Standford d.school, invite Asia Pacific youths to join in this first ever TIJ-UNODC Borderless Youth forum 2019. This forum adopts techniques taught at Design Across Borders, a Stanford d.school class. This technique allows participants to dive deep into local justice challenges, ...

Cambodia and Vietnam made progress toward ambitious economic targets after trade between the countries rose 21.2 percent in the first two months of this year, worth about $624.1 million. Thach Du, Vietnamese ambassador to Cambodia, told local media his nation was Cambodia’s third largest trade ...

The Thai government’s statement in late July that it is considering bringing water from the Mekong, Moei and Salween rivers to farmland to nine of its provinces has raised major concerns.  The water diversion has been described as a move to ‘extract blood from the Mekong’s ...

The environment is suffering great pressure from socio-economic activities with an increase in environmental pollution both in quantity and scale, calling for more effective solutions to handle the issue. The appearance of extreme weather, pollution hotspots at river basins and air pollution are among the main ...

Thais can profit from plastic waste, as well as help the environment, by adopting a more circular economy, according to one of the world’s largest plastic producers, Indorama Ventures Plc. The company’s senior vice-president Richard Jones told the Bangkok Post last week that plastic waste deserves proper management ...

Kerry Worldbridge Logistics’ special economic zone began operating yesterday, with promises of boosting the high-end technology industry. The zone, a joint venture between Hong Kong-listed Kerry Logistic Network Ltd and Worldbridge International, said the SEZ will be a hub for foreign manufacturing firms. Sear Rithy, president ...

Phnom Penh’s remote Prey Speu Social Affairs Centre – a de facto prison used to indefinitely incarcerate some of the capital’s most vulnerable citizens – has granted unusual access to the media, coinciding with a visit from Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker Ke Sovannaroth.   Eighty-nine men, ...

Thailand will likely be the worst economic performer in Southeast Asia this year, with economists continuing to slash the country’s growth forecast amid surging Covid-19 infections, mounting political tensions and fading hopes for a tourism revival.Gross domestic product is expected to grow 1.8% this year, ...

Smaller fragments of tropical forest experienced forest loss at a greater rate than larger blocks between 2001 and 2018, researchers have found, prompting calls for restorative measures to be taken to increase cover in highly fragmented areas. According to a statement released in conjunction with the report, ...

Thailand may buy 9,000 megawatts of electricity from Laos this year to ensure sufficient supply to meet rising demand, says a senior official at the Energy Ministry. That is nearly 30% higher than thethe 7,000MW Thailand currently buys annually from Laos, according to the most ...

Authorities in Hau Giang Province have identified a sugar mill as the culprit responsible for polluting a river so badly that its waters turned black. Preliminary inspection results show that the sugar mill of Long My Phat Sugarcane, Sugar and Ethanol Joint Stock Company constantly discharges a ...

Thai Union Group, the world’s biggest canned tuna supplier, is making strides toward improving its notorious labor practices in the face of Western pressure.About a year has passed since Thai Union reached an agreement with international environmental group Greenpeace, which had called for a boycott ...

Developing tourism and services in protective and special-use forests in parallel with conservation will become a key part of the national economy in the future.The administration was told to classify, assess and point out typical models to improve management.Nguyễn Quốc Trị, head of the Việt ...

The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday responded to criticism and accusations by opposition groups and the media that the decline and loss of fish production is due to the incompetence of the Ministry, the Fisheries Administration and local officials. The criticism also raised concerns over illegal deforestation, ...