Investment policy and regulation
Foreign investors
IMF Forecasts 6.1% Growth for Vietnam in 2024 Despite Ongoing Challenges
The IMF projects Vietnam’s GDP growth at 6.1% for 2024, supported by external demand and government policies, despite risks in exports and the real estate sector. In its recent September report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) significantly upgraded its 2024 GDP growth forecast for Vietnam to ...
ASEAN Briefing
Thailand grapples with allowing more Chinese landowners
Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades, but foreign land ownership has long been restricted. Foreigners can own no more than 49% of any condominium development and are restricted from owning most freehold estates. Yet Thailand is keen to attract ...
PREM SINGH GILL
Money flows: Who's investing in Laos, and what problems do they present?
A nation disadvantaged by geography, Laos has turned to intense infrastructural development and foreign direct investments to accelerate economic growth. As the landlocked nation opens its doors to foreign money, who is it inviting, and what troubles lay ahead? Once an ancient kingdom and a hub ...
Pei Ying Loh & Zenn Wong
Delta Offshore Energy's Vietnam Project Gets Environmental Approval
Delta Offshore Energy said Tuesday it had secured the environmental approval for the LNG to Power Project, the 3.2 GW power plant, and LNG Terminal in Bac Lieu, Vietnam. “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an extremely important key regulatory milestone towards the financial close and validates ...
Chinese investment upheavals anger Laos' indigenous tribes
Rackety trucks rush across China’s border with its backwater neighbor, stirring up clouds of dust and drowning the tweets of tropical birds. Chinese projects to construct roads in one of Asia’s poorest countries date back to 1962 when Laos was subject to a proxy war between the global Cold ...
Robert Bociaga
Open Letter: Spare Cambodia from Great Power politics in 21st century
The unfortunate speculation that China is building a military base in Cambodian territory is guided by only by ill-intended and misinformed plethora without any evidence. It is utterly a smear campaign against the national interests of Cambodians and the hard-earned peace and development the national government ...
Provincial Lawmakers in Laos Call for More Scrutiny of Foreign Firms
Lawmakers in Laos are urging the government to be stricter on foreign business entities in the country in an effort to protect the environment and protect the livelihood of the people. Khamsaphone Xayavong, a member of parliament from Oumxay district, Oudomxay province in northern Laos, called ...
Chinese investment in Southeast Asia is plummeting
China-funded infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia have plunged in the past year as foreign governments grow wary of Beijing’s overseas investments. The value of newly announced big-ticket deals in the region – investment commitments and construction contracts worth more than $100 million – dropped just ...
Long An maintains top position in FDI attraction in Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta province of Long An last year issued licenses to 90 new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with a combined capital of 450 million USD, thus maintaining its leading position in FDI attraction in the region, according to local authorities. Statistics also show that ...
Myanmar gets more foreign investment than any other poor nation
Myanmar attracted the most foreign direct investment of any of the world’s so-called “least developed countries” in 2017, even as the nation’s reputation plummeted over its forced expulsion of tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims. The $4.3 billion worth of realized FDI that went into ...