Social development

Vietnam has delayed a new social insurance policy that aims to increase contributions to the country’s pension fund, following complaints from both businesses and workers.    The policy, originally slated to take effect this January, is now waiting for further instructions from the labor ministry and relevant ...

There is a significant unmet demand for modern contraception among Cambodian women, according to an annual report on family planning in 69 of the world’s poorest countries. Released this month by Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) – a global partnership between governments, NGOs and the private sector ...

A Thai paramotor flyer missing since he strayed across the border into Laos on 26 December is safe in Xayaboury province and expected to be sent back home in a day or two, Phusang district chief Waradisorn Onnuch said on 28 December. Keep reading ...

Vietnam has suspended the administration of an infant vaccine nationwide after hundreds of parents, trying to secure shots for their children, caused a chaotic scene in front of a medical center in Hanoi.   Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Health Department at the health ministry, has ...

A Myanmar political group, 88 Generation Peace and Open Society, today showed its objection against the death sentence handed down to two Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand. Keep reading ...

More than 160 families in Kratie province’s Snuol district have alleged that the Memot Rubber Plantation company has been using excavators to clear their land. The families from Pi Thnou commune filed a complaint to the provincial office of local rights group Adhoc on 23 December, ...

Upper- and middle income people need to come out and vote if they want to stop parties pitching populist policies to the poor from regaining office, says Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. They should decide what they want at the polls or someone else would do that for ...

A market of industrial chemicals in Ho Chi Minh City is having a new product on sale. And it has quickly become a bestseller.    The black liquid, coming in big plastic cans, works magic. Just add a few drops into water and you can turn it ...

Still defiant, three of the four Yadanabon University students jailed in October on riot charges were released from Mandalay’s Ohbo Prison on 22 December. A fourth, Ko Naing Ye Wai, remains behind bars. Their conviction followed a demonstration in front of the university last June in ...

The government is failing to enforce, or even make landlords and tenants aware of, the new rent-control law, even as rents begin to creep up in anticipation of garment workers receiving their annual wage raise next month, labour advocates say. The legislation, which went into effect ...