Social development
Promises unmet as Thailand tries to reform shrimp industry
Facing international pressure for failing to stop human trafficking in its seafood sector, Thailand promised almost a year ago to compensate victims of slavery and industry leaders vowed to bring all shrimp processing in-house. That hasn’t always happened. Instead, some formerly enslaved shrimp peelers have been ...
Govt, World Bank Group discuss disaster risk management
The Department of Waterways under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is concentrating on the implementation of the South East Asia Disaster Risk Management Project in Laos. The project development objective of the proposed South East Asia Disaster Risk Management Project shall be funded by ...
Abuses prevalent for Cambodia's transgender women: study
An overwhelming majority of transgender women on Cambodia’s city streets are subject to “shocking” harassment and abuse, according to a new report from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights. The report, released on September 21, also shines a light on a disturbing new practice that has allegedly ...
China builds nuclear power plants in border areas, Vietnam takes action
Agencies are planning to build an environmental monitoring system to control possible radioactive substance leakage from large-capacity energy reactors built by the Chinese and located 300 kilometers from Hanoi. More nuclear power plants located close to the Vietnamese border have been built in 2016, some of ...
First Japanese-run hospital opens in Phnom Penh for $35 million
“I think I want to be the first patient,” Prime Minister Hun Sen, who routinely leaves the country for medical care, said on September 20 at an opening ceremony for Cambodia’s first Japanese hospital, a state-of-the-art, $35 million facility in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district. Sunrise Japan ...
Disabled people struggle to get education, jobs: workshop
Various barriers still hinder the development of people with disabilities, particularly those living in rural areas and who lack access to education, vocational training, and employment. This was the message delivered on September 20 by Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Prof. Dr Khamkeo Sanbounkhounxay, when ...
Questions raised over vehicle spraying station
Many people are wondering what the point of the quarantine station on the Thanaleng side of the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge actually is, given that its spray station resembles a nursery water sprinkler. Ostensibly, the spray station, through which every vehicle entering Laos must pass, is to ...
China media: opposition to hydropower dams in Myanmar is “extreme”
Opposition to Chinese-invested hydropower schemes in Myanmar is being orchestrated by “extreme” groups in the country and has been extremely damaging to joint investment projects, an influential Chinese newspaper wrote on September 19. The suspension in 2011 of the US$3.6 billion Myitsone mega dam project by former ...
Officials ramping up efforts to prevent Zika
With Zika cases on the rise in neighbouring countries, Cambodian health officials have ordered provinces with a high mosquito density, and those close to the Thai border, to spray pesticides to eliminate Aedes mosquitoes potentially carrying the virus. As of yesterday, no Zika cases – ...
Meet on freedom of information law as due date nears
Representatives of around 20 civil society organisations will meet on September 16 to discuss key chapters of Cambodia’s long-gestating freedom of information law, which is meant to be completed by late December. “We’ll discuss mechanisms to submit complaints if people don’t receive the requested information,” said ...
