Government services

The Lao government has instructed central and local state organisations to use up to 35 percent of the annual total budget allocated to them to repay debt they have accumulated. The instruction was part of debt payment measures resolved by the annual government meeting where the ...

Myanmar’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement is seeking more money for a planned social pension program, according to a senior official. The ministry originally requested K500 million (US$390,000) in 2015-16 to distribute to an estimated 35,000 people aged 90 years and above. However, a final ...

Since the early 1990s, five rounds of the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Surveys have shown that measured inequality has increased at the national level — within both rural and urban areas, within almost all provinces of Laos and within each of the four major ethnic ...

Cambodia’s Council of Ministers on 21 October approved its 2016 budget, which will increase 16.1 per cent from last year to $4.3 billion, with education set to get another significant injection of funds and the Labour Ministry also receiving a sizeable boost. The draft budget, which now must ...

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered authorities to look into the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) to ensure its funds are being spent to improve people’s health and promote the well-being of the general public. Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on 12 October the premier’s order for comprehensive ...

A progressive budgeting policy used by the Education Ministry has overloaded local administrators with paperwork for which they often lack the expertise, according to a new report, which found the system was less efficient in 2014 than the year before. Released by the NGO Forum, and ...

Volunteers prop up many aspects of the Myanmar healthcare system.  This culture of self-reliance is partially a legacy of the military era where vast spending on defence came at the expense of health or education. While budgets have increased since 2011’s end of outright army rule, Myanmar ...

Myanmar ranked near the bottom of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2015-16 released on 30 September, placing 131st overall out of 140. The positioning represents little change on the rankings in the 2014-15 report, when Myanmar came 134th out of 144 economies. Keep reading ...

Most countries in Southeast Asia do not have a transparent budget process, according to a global survey conducted by International Budget Partnership. The 2015 Open Budget Index used 140 observable facts and indicators to measure if a country’s budget system allows opportunities for adequate oversight and public ...

Hanoi’s tap water rate will be raised by 20 percent to at least 30.5 US cents per cubic meter from next month, the capital’s water utility has said. Keep reading ...