Infrastructure
India, Laos agree to allow direct flights
Vice-President Hamid Ansari on 18 September signed two memorandums of understanding with his counterpart in Laos, Bounyang Vorachith in the Presidential Palace Ho Kham. The MoUs cover an air services agreement — allowing airlines to start a direct flight between the two countries — and another agreement ...
World Bank approves $400m electrification loan
The World Bank approved a US$400 million interest-free loan to provide financing and technical assistance to help bring electricity to more than 6.2 million people in Myanmar, the bank announced on 17 September. The loan will support Myanmar’s National Electrification Plan and was granted by the ...
State Railway of Thailand to clarify Airport Link train purchase
The Transport Ministry on 17 September ordered the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to provide a full report on its 4.4-billion-baht purchase of seven trains for the Airport Rail Link project after the agency was accused of procurement fraud. Deputy Transport Minister Omsin Cheewapreuk asked SRT governor Wuthichart ...
Vietnam builds a $1.7 billion port, and now it lies waiting for ships
More than six years since its opening, a VND40-trillion (US$1.75 billion) deep-river port complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau is still struggling to reach its designed capacity. Statistics from the province’s transport department showed that a total of 1.16 million TEUs were handled ...
Capital’s port on course for IPO
Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) will hold a meeting next week to review the submitted financial statements of Phnom Penh Autonomous Port, Cambodia’s second-largest port, and to consider its eligibility to list and trade its securities on the stock exchange, a CSX official said on 16 ...
Striking bus drivers back behind the wheel – for now
Most striking bus drivers returned to work on 16 September following two days of wildcat strikes that saw hundreds walk off the job in response to an increase in traffic fines. The drivers were cajoled back onto their buses by owners, but many said they would launch ...
Mega First shares jump 9.22% on news of Laos power plant
Shares in Mega First Corp Bhd soared 19 sen or 9.22% to as high as RM2.25 on 17 September on news that it has secured a power plant project in Laos worth RM2.15 billion. At 2.53pm, Mega First narrowed its gains to trade at RM2.22, still up 16 ...
Ho Chi Minh traffic turns crazy as roads become rivers
Many people in Ho Chi Minh City have described the heavy rain on 15 September as “historical,” “worst” and “suffocating” while some just gave it a swear word. The rain, which is possibly the biggest this monsoon, sent traffic in the country’s largest city to even more ...
Japan pledges patrol vessels, loans to Vietnam
Japan pledges to provide Vietnam with 200 million yen (US$1.6 million) in non-refundable aid to buy Japanese used patrol ships for its maritime safety in the 2015 fiscal year, according to a joint statement issued on 15 September following Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s ...
Flooding from dam washes out homes, rice fields in southern Cambodia
Local government officials in a southern Cambodian province failed to evacuate villagers in time to prevent their homes and rice fields from flooding after the operators of a Chinese-built hydropower dam informed them a day earlier that they would open the facility’s gates to release ...