The historic drought this year affected 45,000 hectares of rice and crops, causing a loss of VND8.114 trillion in total. The drought and saline intrusion caused 2 million people to lack water for daily use, 1.75 million people to lose their livelihood, and put hundreds ...

The State Enterprise Policy Office says land development of 39,000 rai held by the debt-ridden State Railway of Thailand could offer a quick solution. Director-general Ekniti Nitithanprapas said SRT, one of the biggest landlords in the country, has holdings that are ideal for commercial development. Some ...

Covering 75,740 ha or a little more than the size of the island state of Singapore, the Can Gio or Sac biosphere reserve located in the Mekong Delta is rich in biodiversity, and listed as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and ...

Greater connectivity between Japan and Cambodia is tightening economic links between the two countries while catalysing Japan’s ambitions to develop a chain of industrial complexes that cut a tract through the Lower Mekong region. Officials at Japan External Trade Organisation, Japan’s development agency, say Cambodia’s economic ...

“We have never seen water color changes like this before. This is the first time I have ever seen the water red. We don’t know what China has done!” Environmentalist have raised alarms in Myanmar after the water of the Shweli River separating China and the ...

Authorities in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province have recently stopped at least nine overloaded timber trucks crossing into the country from the Kingdom, despite the Cambodian government ostensibly banning wood exports to its eastern neighbour, according to a Vietnamese news report. The report, published earlier this ...

Cambodia’s financial sector saw healthy growth last year with increased deposits and profits amid slower credit growth, reflecting sustainable development and increased public confidence in the sector, according to a recently released central bank report. According to the National Bank of Cambodia’s (NBC) annual supervisory ...

MOLISA estimates that about 200,000 university graduates are jobless, and that the figure will not increase sharply in upcoming years but will stay the same. The Q2 Labor Bulletin released by MOLISA showed that 1.088 million people at working age had stayed unemployed by that time, an ...

South Korean investors have begun complaining of irregularities they face in running their operations in Indonesia, amid the government’s efforts to improve the business climate. Despite applauding Indonesia’s attempts to ease the business atmosphere by issuing economic policy packages, the Korean Chamber of Commerce and ...

More than 5,800 suspects have been arrested and 233 million methamphetamine or “speed” pills seized during a regional anti-drug campaign that has benefited from the Covid-19 pandemic. Niyom Termrisuk, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (onCB), said the mushrooming number of checkpoints due ...

The government has teamed up with construction material and consumer product companies to offer special discounts to flood victims in the southern provinces. Wiboonlasana Ruamraksa, permanent secretary for commerce, said the traders agreed to the discounts following talks with the Commerce Ministry. The reductions will ...

Thousands of Lao migrant workers who recently returned from Thailand after losing their jobs to COVID-19 have been facing fresh hardships in crowded, undersupplied quarantine camps,, Lao officials and migrants told RFA. During the coronavirus pandemic hundreds of thousands of the 2.8 million foreign workers in ...

Laos is pushing ahead with four dams across the mainstream of the Mekong River, despite an escalating chorus of objections and crippling debt to Chinese state banks which resulted in the loss of control over its electricity grid to China. For almost two decades scientists and ...

The borrowing is a part of an executive emergency decree empowering the Thailand’s Finance Ministry to seek loans up to one trillion baht ($32 Bln) to combat economic and social problems resulting from COVID-19 . Finance Minister Arkhom Termpitayapaisith and Hideaki Iwasaki, country director for the ...

The co-management model for mangrove forest protection in Soc Trang province has improved livelihoods in local communities and efficiently protects forests. Located south of the Hau River, the southern-most tributary of the Mekong River, Soc Trang has faced the impacts of climate change, including coastal erosion. Human activities ...

More than 40 civil society organisations urged the World Bank to stop a project worth US$250 million (K380.3 billion) in eastern Myanmar over concerns it could undermine Karen culture and traditions.   The Peaceful and Prosperous Communities Project targets the development of conflict zones in eastern Myanmar.  According ...

In the rugged province of Xieng Khoaung in upper northern Laos are scattered more than 2,000 large carved stone jars. They vary in size, with the biggest standing at just over 2.5 metres tall and weighing in at 30 tonnes. The jars are believed to ...

The 5th Green Industry Conference (GIC5) will take place from 3-5 October 2018, at United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, and is organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), ...

When Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD opened its first Southeast Asian factory in Thailand earlier this month, the nation of 66 million people basked in the limelight and won praise for its industrial vision.What, however, received less attention was an announcement by another big automobile ...

By June 2016, about 89.6% of the country’s population had joined the health insurance; exceeding the target assigned by the Prime Minister in Decision No.1167/QD-TTg (health insurance covers 88.1% of Vietnam population by 2019). Notably, many countries with social and economic conditions similar to Vietnam, ...