Aid and development

The Government of Japan Friday granted JPY 412 million or approximately US$3.9 million to the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to advance its flood and drought monitoring and forecasting functions. The funding will be spread over four years from 2020–2023. It is to transform the MRC’s Regional ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen said China has financed the construction of more than 3,000 kilometres of roads in the Kingdom. The figure was shared at the inauguration ceremony of National Road No. 55 with a total length of 182.16 kilometres and the groundbreaking for ...

Laos government officials completed a three-week training course on advanced Geographic Information Systems, which was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to enable them to undertake climate mapping and zoning. The training course, funded by the Global Environment Facility, covered spatial analysis, geo-databases, network ...

On February 12, the European Union Commission pulled the plug on Cambodia’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), citing “serious and systematic violations of human-rights principles,” partially withdrawing the country’s preferential access to the EU. The decision resulted in uncertainty for Myanmar’s industries, especially the garment and shoemaking ...

The Myanmar government is planning to upgrade basic infrastructure and enhance urban management of three major cities in Mon and Karen states that lie along Japan’s planned East-West Economic Corridor for the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Minister of Construction U Han Zaw said Monday that his ...

Cambodia’s government is preparing for the European Union to partially and temporarily remove the country’s Everything But Arms (EBA) trade privileges on Wednesday, in the wake of a 2018 political crackdown. The EU warned Cambodia last February it would withdraw the scheme unless it made more effort to improve the ...

 Lao government officials completed a three-week training course on advanced Geographic Information Systems, which was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to enable them to undertake climate mapping and zoning. The training course, funded by the Global Environment Facility, covered spatial analysis, geo-databases, network ...

The Lao Ministry of Finance and the World Bank signed a financing agreement of 50 million U.S. dollars on Tuesday, extending support to the ongoing Lao People’s Democratic Republic Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management Project and Lao Road Sector Project II. Bounchom Ubonpaseuth, Lao Deputy Minister ...

The World Bank has classified Laos as a lower-middle-income economy in its latest classification for the 2020 fiscal year. The bank classifies the world’s economies into four income groups, namely high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low, based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in U.S. dollars. Lower middle-income economies are those ...

A new financing package of $212.5 million (£162m) has been announced to support climate-friendly projects in Vietnam. The funding from IFC, a member of the World Bank, will enable VPBank to expand its lending to small and medium businesses and boost financing for projects that help reduce carbon ...