Social development
Dropout rates dropped in ’16, Education Ministry says
Significantly fewer upper secondary students dropped out of school in 2016 compared to the previous year, but Cambodian education authorities say they still want to halve the rate to improve graduation rates and students’ chances of success in life. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron reported ...
Villagers issue new calls to solve old land dispute
Villagers from Oddar Meanchey used a news conference on March 21 to appeal for government action to return land at the centre of a years-old dispute with sugar companies. The conflict erupted in 2008, when villagers were forcibly evicted from their land to allow Angkor Sugar, ...
Push to increase education, training
A senior government official has urged the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to help children – both those who have never attended school as well as dropouts – get an education or receive training to improve their job prospects and income. The push was made ...
Tougher healthcare oversight ordered
Minister of Health Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến on March 20 urged inspectors from the central to grassroots levels to ensure that fines are handed out for violations of healthcare service regulations. The total amount of fines last year was only VNĐ7 billion (US$307,000), she said, adding ...
Will the environment be the Vietnam government’s downfall?
For years, Tran Thi Nga was subjected to harassment and brutalization by the Vietnamese authorities, the details of which emerged in a fresh Human Rights Watch report published earlier this year. She was finally arrested in January for using the using “the Internet to post ...
Phongsaly's charms attracting more visitors
The number of visitors to Phongsaly province is rising steadily, with a significant jump from the more than 82,000 people recorded in 2015 to 103,583 visitors in 2016. The province’s tourism section is confident this trend will continue and is predicting at least 110,000 visitors ...
Intensive course seeks to improve hospital management
Management administrators from five major hospitals met in Vientiane recently to learn more about management methods in hopes of improving the country’s healthcare services and human resources development. Hospital management covered in the one-week course taking place under the Swiss Laos Hospital Project included patient ...
Monastic school teachers to get training
Thousands of teachers in Buddhist monastic schools are going to be trained on how to deal with children better. Phaung Daw Oo Monastic Affiliated High School principal Sayadaw U Nayaka said the teachers would receive training in child-centred teaching approach in the 2017-18 academic year. ...
Saving Vietnam's floating markets
Amid mighty rivers and dense mangroves, the busy floating markets in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have long shaped the delta’s well-known “water civilization.” As many as a dozen floating markets still remain along major waterways around the delta, where boats, houses, and markets float upon the ...
Safe employment project for women launched
A project focusing on creating safe working environment and job opportunities for female migrant workers, as well as protecting women workers, has been launched in Yangon. The “Aung Myin Hmu Project: Industry Solution for Safe Employment” that was launched on March 19 in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar ...
