Economy and commerce
Trade
ASEAN adopts master plan on connectivity 2025
Leaders meeting at the 28th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane on September 6 adopted the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025. Lao Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Saleumxay Kommasith, who is Chair of the ASEAN Coordinating Council that oversees connectivity matters for the regional body, said the Master ...
Myanmar: Loi Hein to invest $23.5m; Airport project award by 2017
Myanmar’s beverage manufacturer, Loi Hein – in a joint venture with Japan’s Toyo Seikan Co Ltd – has set up steel cans production unit in the country. Meanwhile, the concession agreement for the Hanthawaddy International Airport project is expected to be signed in December 2016. Loi Hein ...
Bank of China to expand operations in Cambodia
Bank of China, one of the five biggest state-owned commercial banks in China, will expand its operations in Cambodia by opening new branches in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, a local bank executive said on September 6. Chen Chang Jiang, CEO of Bank of China Phnom Penh ...
Businesses urged to hedge baht in face of volatility
Business leaders have expressed concerns that the rapidly appreciating baht could dampen exports and suggest business operators hedge foreign exchange risks. The monthly meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking on September 5 heard the disquiet over the increasing volatility of foreign exchange. ...
Jack Ma wants to ship Thai farm exports
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has asked Jack Ma to support Thai small and medium-sized enterprises as the Alibaba Group’s founder wants the country to export farm products to China and ASEAN through the group. Referring to their meeting in Hangzhou in the night of September ...
Modern machinery, technical skills needed to improve wood processing
Modern machines and technical skills are required to enhance the competitiveness of the Lao timber processing industry in line with other countries in the region. Chairman of the Okawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Japan, Mr Yuji Sonoda made the observation during an interview with Vientiane ...
Cambodian traders test derivatives market
Sitting in a cafe on Phnom Penh’s Sothearos Boulevard in August, a group of young Cambodians gazed at their computer screens, watching the movement of currency around the globe. During their regular weekday trading session in the foreign exchange market, dubbed forex or FX, they anticipate ...
So long to the Asian sweatshop
For 30 years, the word “sweatshop” has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed ...
ASEAN to become world's No. 4 economy by 2030: Laos PM
A new economic order will emerge by 2030, with Southeast Asia taking on a central role, Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith told business leaders in his nation’s capital on September 5. “Studies have shown that the ASEAN economy is expected to grow at 7% per annum, ...
Thailand 'ready to bridge' G20 and G77
Thailand is ready to serve as a bridge linking the Group of 20’s major industrialised economies and the developing economies in the Group of 77, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha says. Gen Prayut was speaking on September 4 as he attended the two-day G20 summit in Hangzhou, China ...