Aid and development

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors last week approved US$40 million in emergency finance support for small and medium-sized businesses in Laos to help them recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank said in a press release. The funding will be channelled ...

Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi announced on Wednesday that Japan will provide Cambodia with assistance to improve its urban areas, combat plastic litter in oceans, and fight terrorism. The commitment was revealed during a phone conversation between Motegi and Minister of Foreign Affairs and ...

China on Thursday signed an agreement with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to share year-round data on the flow of its portion of the vital waterway amid concern that Chinese dams may be causing drought downstream in Southeast Asia. A push for more data from China’s ...

The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has agreed to provide a grant of US$11 million for a project to establish an effective water resources management system and enhance disaster response capabilities for the Nam Ngum River basin. According to the KOICA Office in Laos, the project ...

Coastal communities in Myanmar are extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change and highly exposed to severe natural weather events such as heavy rain, storm surge, floods and cyclones. To help Myanmar respond to those natural challenges, the Forest Department, with the support from Denmark, ...

The Australian government is reportedly preparing to bolster its aid programs in Southeast Asia, as concern in Canberra mounts about China’s growing influence in the region. According to an October 12 report in The Age, Australia is finalizing a Southeast Asian aid package that would inject of ...

Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong said that China has provided about $140 million in grants for urgent development projects in the Kingdom. The grant came as Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi gave a diplomatic note to the Kingdom at a meeting on ...

The U.S. government aims to take another bite out of Chinese influence in Southeast Asia with a partnership to aid five countries that traditionally tap Beijing for help, experts in the region say. The Mekong-U.S. Partnership, formed September 11, will give Washington more clout in Cambodia, ...

Thaw Lay, a high school student from Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, knew that this school year would be unlike any other. “I was excited, but I also knew that things would be a little different, when school reopened later this year”, he recalls. Thaw Lay ...

Representatives of the European Union (EU) and the Lao government have held discussions on an agreement on combating illegal logging and promoting trade in legal timber products. The issue was discussed at the fourth Joint Expert Meeting (JEM) on a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on forest law ...