Aid and development

NORWAY and Vietnam have agreed to work closer together on the development of industrial scale aquaculture. The two countries, both major fish farming nations, took part in a special webinar at the weekend. Norway is of course well known as the world’s largest salmon farmer, while ...

The UK and Thailand have jointly launched the “UK Thailand Tech Export Academy”.  The purpose of the collaboration is to promote the development of “smart cities” to be constructed across Thailand.  So far, the initiative has involved the matching of over 200 businesses from the ...

The U.N.’s special envoy on Myanmar met behind closed doors with Thailand’s leader Friday, trying to find solutions to the Burmese crisis, as ASEAN dithered on naming its emissary to the coup-ridden country, which has already blocked the proposed visit. Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations ...

WOB Timber, a logging company based in Hamburg, Germany, has been ordered by a court to pay a $4 million fine for illegally trading Myanmar timber. The April 27 decision was one of the highest financial penalties for this type of crime in the European ...

The Australian government on May 7 signed an agreement with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to contribute an additional A$4 million (US$3.15 million) to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 on Cambodia’s economy and people, the UNDP said in a press release. The agreement took effect immediately, ...

Cambodia is well-prepared to minimise economic risks when it graduates from its Least Developed Countries status, according to a senior official at the Ministry of Commerce on May 7. Four LDCs – Cambodia, Laos, Bangladesh and Nepal – met at a virtual workshop last week to ...

The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) will continue to inject impetus into the China-ASEAN cooperation and the ASEAN community building towards a more open, inclusive and prosperous region, Cambodian experts said in recent interviews with Xinhua. Launched on March 23, 2016 during the first LMC Leaders’ Meeting in ...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has held talks with authorities in Mae Hong Son to find ways to help more than 2,000 Karen refugees who crossed the Salaween River into Thailand to flee fighting between the KNU (Karen National Union) and Myanmar ...

Developing Asia’s economy will rebound faster this year than previously estimated, as nations tread diverging recovery paths, according to the Asian Development Bank. Southeast Asia’s forecast was lowered to 4.4% growth this year amid reduced projections for Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The region’s gross domestic product ...

Aerial view of the Ru Cha mangrove forest in Thua Thien-Hue Province. Photo by VnExpress/Vo Thanh. USAID has launched two new conservation and forest management projects to help Vietnam’s fight against the climate crisis, the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday. The Sustainable Forest Management project, implemented by U.S.-based ...