Government
Vietnam orders local governments to stop building extravagant offices for themselves
Vietnam has ordered local governments to suspend all of their plans for new offices before all costs and expenses are reviewed carefully. The Ministry of Construction will look into all the projects and any shortcomings will be reported and fixed to prevent wasteful spending, Deputy Prime ...
Laos' Party Congress set to convene in January
The 10th Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party – the country’s top political congress is expected to convene in January next year to elect a new Party leadership, discuss and adopt national development roadmaps for the next five years. The Central Committee of the Party’s ...
Delayed post-election talks put transition in doubt
President U Thein Sein appears to have delayed indefinitely a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the transfer of power to a new government following her party’s landslide election victory. A representative of the president says talks with the National League for Democracy ...
Camp residents look to NLD win for better future
Internally displaced persons living in camps on the outskirts of Sittwe have expressed hope the National League for Democracy’s election landslide will pave the way to ensuring their human rights and ending discrimination against them, saying little has improved in the three years since the ...
Myanmar government drives up budget deficit with additional spending
President U Thein Sein’s outgoing government has submitted a supplementary budget request to parliament of K2.464 trillion (US$1.92 billion) with the defence ministry in line to receive the largest allocation, while health and education spending remain close to the bottom of the list. If approved by ...
Cambodia's budget transparency at all-time low: report
The Cambodian government’s budget transparency score has fallen to its lowest measure on record, according to a recent survey, but officials remain optimistic that the score will improve in the future. Cambodia’s score of eight out of 100 in 2015’s Open Budget Survey put it near ...
UN criticises Cambodia, China rights violations
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on 17 November that an arrest warrant issued against Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy was a worrisome development and called for dialogue. Meanwhile, in Geneva, a UN watchdog questioned Chinese officials over alleged widespread use of torture in the country’s prisons, deaths ...
Vietnam, New Zealand sign four agreements
Vietnamese and New Zealand businesses signed four agreements on 15 November during the official visit by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to Vietnam. The four business-to-business arrangements – between Global Trust Alliance, AsureQuality and Vinamilk, Airways International and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation, Airways International ...
Myanmar's outgoing MPs ease back in to work
As parliamentarians arrived at the vast entrance hall to the Pyithu Hluttaw on 16 November morning, they were doing their best to keep their expressions neutral – none more so than the last to arrive. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is known for maintaining a steely expression ...
US pledges $259m to SE Asian allies for maritime security
The United States said on 16 November it would provide US$259 million to its Southeast Asian allies for maritime security, as tensions rise over Beijing’s island-building in the disputed South China Sea. The pledges of support to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia came shortly after US ...
