Investment policy and regulation

Investment is starting to flow into the government’s planned special economic zones with 39 projects worth 7.2 billion baht applying for promotional privileges from the Board of Investment. The Special Economic Zone Policy Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, on 27 July acknowledged the investment ...

Laos and Singapore are pledging to work together to promote trade and investment between the two countries after their trade volume climbed to US$72.5 million in 2015. As of 2016, investment from Singapore stood at US$187 million, ranking the country in eleventh place among all foreign ...

After joining WTO, Vietnam laid the red carpet out to welcome foreign investors with huge investment projects worth billions of dollars. But some of these projects never started or have lost licenses.  Ca Na was one of the projects in the ‘FDI golden age’ when ...

Northern Myanmar’s Myitsone mega-project failed because its Chinese proponents systematically dismissed Kachin and Burmese nationalism. The Chinese hydropower developers’ strategy was what I call “anti-ethno-politics”: when the state, NGOs, businesses, or other actors try to depoliticise sensitive questions about how their own activities clash with ...

Malaysia and Singapore signed an agreement on 18 July to build an ambitious high-speed rail link touted as a first for Southeast Asia that will knit the historically fractious neighbours more closely together. Authorities have yet to provide cost projections, but analyst estimates have been as high ...

ASEAN agriculture experts plan to work together towards the sustainable development of the food and agriculture sectors after holding talks on the issue. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s Director General of the Agriculture Department, Mr Vilaysouk Khennavong, said “the sustainable development of the food and ...

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has proposed the prime minister to approve the investment plan of the $311.9 million seaport and industrial park complex invested by a consortium of three foreign investors in Quang Yen town of the northern province of Quang Ninh, Vietnam. According ...

Foreign companies providing technology solutions for textile, garment, and footwear production have been increasingly active in Vietnam, taking advantage of the expected growth of the industry. On July 7, French company Lectra announced the opening of its subsidiary Lectra Vietnam. “Vietnam is one of the most dynamic ...

Speaking to Vientiane Times on 13 July, Chairman of the Champassak Provincial SEZ Authority Mr Khamphon Nuansengsy said that his authority conducted a survey recently and found that many more Lao people wanted to return to work in their hometown as long as jobs were available. In the ...

Viet Nam’s economic growth in 2016 will be affected by many factors. General Director of the Viet Nam Statistics Office, Nguyen Bich Lam, speaks to business news website BNEWS.  Social investment capital in the first six months of 2016 reached VND 618.2 trillion (US$27.71 billion), an ...