Social development
Laos benefits from regional cooperation
Laos is benefiting from regional projects supported by the Republic of Korea and India through Mekong-ROK and Mekong-Ganga cooperation. The Sixth Mekong-ROK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting hosted by Laos in Vientiane on Sunday welcomed the endorsement of seven projects under the Mekong-ROK Cooperation Fund, to which the ...
Thailand and the obesity epidemic
Obesity has reached alarming levels in the Asean Economic Community and especially in Thailand, where 32 per cent of the population are overweight, pushing the country into second place in terms of prevalence of obesity after Malaysia at 44 per cent and ahead of Singapore ...
Thailand shores up digital economy drive
The Thai Board of Investment Seoul Office held a seminar in mid-July to promote the country’s rising digital economy and attract investors and specialists. The venue titled “Thailand: Moving forward to digital economy” gave an overview of developments in the second largest economy in Southeast ...
China denies political conditions on aid to Cambodia
China said on 22 July its financial assistance to Cambodia is in no way dependent on that country’s support on diplomatic and political issues, such as Beijing’s dispute with other Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea. A Foreign Ministry statement faxed to The Associated Press ...
Government, plantation managers trade blame
The managers of some of Cambodia’s most controversial agribusiness plantations on 21 July blamed their many land disputes on the government, accusing officials of failing to educate communities about the benefits of their giant farms. Rights groups blame economic land concessions for some of Cambodia’s worst problems, ...
It’s time for development banks to start listening
The aid community often ignores the wishes of the very people it’s supposed to be helping. The world needs a more bottom-up approach to development. Almost a year ago, the United Nations set the Sustainable Development Goals, an ambitious blueprint for governments and financiers to ...
Govt publishes data on populations of religious groups
According to the figures publicly launched by the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population, on 21 July in the capital Naypyidaw, Buddhists constitute 87.9 percent of the country, Christians make up 6.2 percent, Muslims comprise 4.3 percent, animists are counted at 0.8 percent and Hindus are ...
IACD boosts education and cultural exchange project
The Institute of Asian Culture and Development and the Ministry of Education and Sports will work together to improve education and cultural exchange in Laos after reaching a grant project agreement. The agreement was signed on 19 July in Vientiane by IACD Country Director Dr Hosik ...
The business of achieving the sustainable development goals
By 2030, poverty and hunger should be history, every human being should have access to clean energy, and the impacts of climate change should be reduced. These are just three of the 17 promises the global community made last September when it adopted the Sustainable Development ...
Maid in Singapore
The dream of opening a business back in Myanmar is what brought Moe Moe to Singapore two years ago. What she did not know is that it would be nine months before she received her first salary. For the first nine months everything went to the ...
