Economy and commerce

Cambodia is well-prepared to minimise economic risks when it graduates from its Least Developed Countries status, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Commerce on May 7. Four LDCs – Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and Nepal – met at a virtual workshop last week to ...

April marked the one-year anniversary since most countries in the world went into some form of lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19. The pandemic first and foremost has exposed gaps in current labour practices towards low-skilled transient (migrant) workers across Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore, ...

Developing Asia’s economy will rebound faster this year than previously estimated, as nations tread diverging recovery paths, according to the Asian Development Bank. Southeast Asia’s forecast was lowered to 4.4% growth this year amid reduced projections for Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The region’s gross domestic product ...

A new industrial boom is bringing high-tech investments to eastern Thailand. But in this drought-prone landscape, is there enough water to go around? As Thailand embarks on an ambitious industrialisation drive along its eastern seaboard, local communities and conservationists fear a brewing war over water. The Eastern Economic ...

New reports of Lao military operations against ethnic Hmong communities suggest the government is tightening its control over areas targeted for development and investment. According to a Radio Free Asia report on April 1, Lao military forces have repeatedly attacked Hmong living around Phou Bia mountain in Xaysomboun province, ...

In Southeast Asia, as everywhere else, Covid-19 has fundamentally disrupted business as usual. A damaging side-effect of the pandemic on companies in the region, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is the emergence of new corruption risks – the urgent demands of emergency procurement have ...

The prices of animal feed climbed sharply Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Director of Chau Thanh Fisheries Production and Service Cooperative in Dong Thap Province, said that from the end of 2020 to now, the price of fish feed has escalated sharply. On the contrary, the price ...

Local communities along the Mekong River are asking the government to establish a fund, made up of collected tax revenues from development projects on the waterway, to compensate villagers affected by them. “This fund [should] not be a corporate social responsibility scheme,” said Ormbun Thipsuna, president ...

For Bernard Kervyn, the pandemic has made poverty alleviation an even more challenging task in countries along the Mekong River. Kervyn, regional director in Vietnam and Cambodia for the nonprofit organization Mekong Plus, said the outbreak has led to a 30 percent rise in the number ...

While Vietnam has largely succeeded in combatting the coronavirus, COVID-19 is not the only crisis facing the country, as the threat posed by climate change is reported to be, in some ways, just as serious. According to the latest Global Climate Risk Index report, published in January, Vietnam’s ...