Social development

A plan to roll out monthly pensions for the elderly remains mired in a logistical tangle – and those who qualify could receive as little as K15,000 a year. While the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement received the green light in December 2014 to implement ...

Recently halted after severe flooding that inundated swathes of the country, Myanmar will resume rice exports as scheduled from mid-September, the country’s rice federation said on 31 August. Members of the Myanmar Rice Federation had agreed to a temporary pause on exports and to sell domestically at ...

Human rights groups and the wife of a prominent civil rights leader who disappeared nearly three years ago have called on the Lao government to adequately investigate the incident and provide information about the case’s progress. Sombath Somphone went missing on 15 December 2012, when police ...

Environment and agriculture ministry officials 26 August warned the authors of a new report accusing the government of colluding with timber magnate Try Pheap to illegally log the protected forests of northeastern Cambodia that they could be sued unless they made changes to the text. Keep reading   ...

The poverty rate has reduced dramatically in rural households from 27.1 per cent in 2012 to 13.2 per cent in 2014 while access to public services such as vocational and educational training and health care has improved. This was revealed at a workshop held on 26 ...

A new umbrella group of Muslim rebels who are waging a bloody insurgency in southern Thailand called on 27 August for a resumption of stalled peace talks but it was unclear whether the Thai military junta would recognise them. Representatives of Mara Pattani, which claims to speak for ...

Police in Yangon Division’s Hmawbi Township have detained 10 Rohingya Muslims and the driver of the vehicle in which they were found riding, according to local law enforcement. A police officer in Hmawbi Township told The Irrawaddy that local authorities were holding the internal migrants, but he ...

Thailand has been transitioning to a service-based economy, which accounts for just over half of GDP, and universities are being urged to enhance the capacity of new graduates to meet changing market demand.  Bangkok University has noted this changing trend and is grooming students to serve ...

Packaging for cigarettes made in Myanmar will soon bear photos and text cautioning against the deleterious health effects of consuming tobacco products, Health Minister U Than Aung has said. “We have drawn up a notification to include health warnings in pictures and text covering 75 percent ...

Myanmar’s  opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has warned armed ethnic minority groups not to rush into signing a nationwide ceasefire, a top party colleague said 26 August, a position that pits her against President Thein Sein, who has made reaching a deal before November ...