Development policy and administration

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is approximately the same size as the Netherlands — about 41,000 square kilometers (16,000 square miles) — and is home to 17 million people, very nearly the same population as the Netherlands. Perhaps that made dialogue easier. Unlike many foreign experts, the Dutch ...

The Government of Norway through Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) confirmed its commitment to continue supporting Cambodia’s mine clearance efforts by providing $5 million for the next four years. The assistance was made known by Mr. Zlatko Vezillic, Programme Manager for NPA’s Cambodia’s Mine Action and Disarmament ...

Myanmar is planning to take a US$60 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to establish a Credit Guarantee Corporation (CGC), U Maung Maung Win, the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Industry, said in Parliament on May 21. The proposal ...

These days, I get nostalgic every time I make a trip to Hanoi. This time around, it was about Vietnam’s street food scene. When I first came to Hanoi in 1986, my favourite eating place was at the corner of Ly Thuong Kiet and Pham ...

If you are the world’s second-largest power, what do you dream about? How do you go about making this dream come true? Put bluntly, the Mekong River region represents a crucial testing ground for Beijing’s mid- to long-term ambitions — not acknowledged officially — to become ...

In June 2018, the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) held its eighth summit in Bangkok. ACMECS countries include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand. Initially an initiative of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2003, there were few indications that the Thai government ...

Thailand and the smaller states in its neighbourhood will miss the Asia-Pacific era. It is not as if the Asia-Pacific has gone away or disappeared in any sense. But its role as a cradle of prosperity linking larger and small economies around the Pacific Rim ...

At the moment, China and Japan are planning to work together on at least 52 business projects in third countries in the region, encompassing both the Indian and Pacific oceans. Certainly, these projects provide tangible ways for Asia’s two largest economies to foster mutual trust ...

The European Union (EU) and Laos held their third round of face-to-face negotiations on a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT). The talks took place in Brussels, Belgium from 17-21 June 2019. The Agreement aims to establish a system ...

On Sunday 23 June, the Rohingya Community in Thailand planned to hand a statement to Myanmar, Thailand as ASEAN’s chair, and the leaders of the ASEAN countries, but the police blocked them. They therefore decided not to go to the ASEAN Summit and Thai Ministry ...