Aid and development
Thailand, ADB join hands for Mekong subregion development
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding on 15 October, aiming to support economic development programmes mainly in countries along the Greater Mekong Subregion. Keep reading ...
US and Laos host Mekong disaster response initiative
The government of Laos, in partnership with the United States, recently hosted the Lower Mekong Initiative Disaster Relief Exercise and Exchange in Vientiane. The exercise and exchange is an annual initiative between the governments of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. Each year ...
Malaria money granted to Cambodia sits idle
Millions of dollars of aid money granted to Cambodia by the Global Fund to combat malaria have been left sitting in a bank account for more than a year, official documents seen by the Post show. The money remains untouched because the National Malaria Centre (CNM) ...
South Korea to fund Laos–Vietnam railway feasibility study
Vietnam’s transport ministry and the Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) have agreed to study the feasibility of a 500 km-long railway link from Laos’ Vientiane to Vung Ang in central Ha Tinh Province of Vietnam. The study will be conducted with a $US3-million ODA grant from KOICA for ...
25 bridges to be built in Vietnam with JICA loans
The Vietnamese Prime Minister has approved the construction of 25 bridges with the second transport sector loan for the national road network improvement project. The bridges’ total investment is about VND1.686 trillion ($75 million), funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency ODA loans. Keep reading ...
ADB to double climate financing to US$6b for Asia-Pacific
The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao announced on 25 September that the ADB will double its annual climate financing to US$6 billion by 2020, up from the current US$3 billion. ADB’s spending on tackling climate change will rise to around 30 percent of its overall ...
Lower Mekong nations collaborate on flood response during exercise in Laos
Dealing with and attempting to mitigate disaster scenarios is why experts, both military and civilian, from six nations were in the capital of Laos participating in the 2015 Lower Mekong Initiative Disaster Relief Exercise and Exchange. The LMI DREE is an annual civil-military disaster preparedness and ...
Laos to highlight progress in MDGs in UN forums in New York
Despite its being a tiny landlocked nation, Laos has made some inroads in its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly in providing primary healthcare to Laotian mothers and children in the country’s hinterlands. This will be the message that Laos President Choummaly Sayasone will bring to New ...
Mines on Cambodian premier’s UN speech agenda
Prime Minister Hun Sen will attend the opening of the UN’s General Assembly in New York on 25 September and has vowed to push demining as a development issue, despite it not being on the UN’s agenda. Speaking at the Sokha Hotel, the premier questioned the issue’s ...
Time’s up for MDG targets
As the United Nations meets this week to draw up a new set of sustainable development benchmarks, the era of the body’s landmark Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is coming to a close, with some wondering – in spite of gains – what efficacy such targets ...