Aid and development

The World Bank has classified Laos as a lower-middle-income economy in its latest classification for the 2020 fiscal year. The bank classifies the world’s economies into four income groups, namely high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low, based on Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in U.S. dollars. Lower middle-income economies are those ...

A new financing package of $212.5 million (£162m) has been announced to support climate-friendly projects in Vietnam. The funding from IFC, a member of the World Bank, will enable VPBank to expand its lending to small and medium businesses and boost financing for projects that help reduce carbon ...

Countries in the Mekong region have been leaders in developing products and services based on the sustainable use of biodiversity for years.   Many have also ratified the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing, which sets a minimum standard for regulations on accessing genetic resources and sharing ...

The Vietnam Development Report 2019 “Connecting Vietnam for Growth and Shared Prosperity” was co-launched by the World Bank (WB) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Hanoi on Wednesday. It presents a comprehensive overview of connectivity issues in Vietnam, using a set of new analytical ...

The Global Infrastructure Facility’s (GIF) Governing Council has approved $1.5m in funding to support the World Bank’s work with the government of Vietnam on a Solar Pilot Auction Program. The GIF, working with the World Bank’s Energy Global Practice, will help the government to design and ...

The Don Sahong hydropower dam in Laos has begun operations and this week connected its power grid to Cambodia, a Cambodian official said on Wednesday as the country steps up electricity imports after continued power outages last year. Don Sahong, which was designed for an installed ...

The Japanese government announced in late December that it will launch an aid program to help internally displaced people in a conflict zone in Myanmar’s northern state of Kachin to return home. China has strong influence in northern Myanmar, including Kachin. Countrywide, Japan and China are ...

South Korea is urging Thailand to spearhead the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (Acmecs) for sustainable water management, after President Moon Jae-in met with Asean leaders last month in Busan under Thailand’s year-long chairmanship. Thailand co-chaired the 2019 Asean-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit and the first ...

Thailand has joined the 52 other members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) in stressing the need to revitalise multilateralism amid ongoing challenges to the world order. The 14th Asem Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Madrid on Sunday and Monday ended with a chairman’s statement. “Ministers underlined the ...

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors Last Friday approved 50 million U.S. dollars of additional financing in Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management Project in Laos and the Lao Road Sector Project II. The additional funding will help reduce the financing gap for reconstruction following widespread ...