News
Vietnam steel association wants fewer plants as supply surplus hurts industry
The Vietnam Steel Association has urged authorities not to go ahead with 27 planned steel plants since local output is already more than twice the demand. Some of the planned plants have not been started while others have proved impractical or are using outdated technology. Keep reading ...
Thailand 'the laggard in ASEAN GDP growth'
Thailand will trail all ASEAN countries in growth because its open economy and export dependence leave it directly exposed to the global and Chinese slowdowns, according to the World Bank. Thai gross domestic product this year is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent, while the East Asia-Pacific ...
Dengue’s link to El Niño
As Cambodia contends with one of the strongest El Niño cycles in recent memory, a new study of millions of dengue cases over the past two-decades-plus has shown that spikes in the deadly disease across Southeast Asia may be linked to the weather phenomenon. Upswings in ...
Cambodia drought spawns fish fears
Fishing communities along two of Cambodia’s principle rivers say their livelihoods are threatened by droughts that have reduced water levels and devastated fish numbers. “The Tonle Sap is 3 metres lower than last year,” Long Sochhet, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Fishing Communities, said on ...
Police block marchers on World Habitat Day
More than 1,000 demonstrators from about 50 communities across the country gathered Monday to mark U.N. World Habitat Day and protest against widespread land and housing evictions, but found their march blocked by municipal authorities, who claimed the protesters posed a risk to security. Beginning the ...
On Cambodia's Tonle Sap, Vietnamese families face mass eviction
The Kompong Chhnang provincial government is in the process of evicting about 1,000 mostly Vietnamese families who live in the floating villages on the Tonle Sap river near the provincial capital, moving them up the river as part of a five-year plan to beautify the ...
World Bank cuts Thailand growth to 2.5%
The World Bank has slashed Thailand’s economic growth this year to 2.5% from 3.5%, the lowest in the East Asia and Pacific region, in its latest regional report released on 5 October. Thailand’s growth next year was also cut to 2% from 4% in the previous forecast ...
ASEAN integration will prompt ‘flood of migrants’
A senior investigator at rights group Adhoc has warned that regional economic integration will lead to a flood of Cambodians migrating elsewhere in search of jobs that pay better than those at home. Keep reading ...
Floods dampen Myanmar's growth: WB
Myanmar’s economy will expand at only 6.5 per cent in the 2015-16 fiscal year due to floods and slowing investments, according to a World Bank report. Keep reading ...
Thai Government tells rice farmers to choose another crop
The government has called on farmers across the country to grow plants that require less water than rice amid the ongoing risk of drought. “Farmers, for example, can grow corn-for-animal feed and pods instead,” government spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on 4 October. Keep reading ...
