News
Developers flock to city hotspot as land prices soar
The Ratchathewi-Phetchaburi zone in Bangkok has become a hotspot attracting significant interest from property developers thanks to its potential to become a major urban transit interchange in 2020. Land prices in the area have risen at a pace comparable with the Siam Square area, according to ...
Festive period likely to boost rice prices
Rice prices are forecast to increase by as much as 10% late this year and early next year thanks to year-end festive celebrations and lower supply. Chookiat Ophaswongse, an honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said rice prices were likely to rise by 8-10% ...
Vietnam expels Chinese man for illegal mass earthworm hunting
Quang Tri border guards have deported a Chinese man who had asked locals to help him hunt earthworms using an illegal chemical and promised to buy the crawl for a high price. Gan DeQiang, 40, was also fined VND16 million (US$712) for his violations, according to ...
Laos to receive technical training from Chinese on proposed high-speed railway
Chinese railway experts are providing technical training this month for Lao officials in charge of a U.S. $7 billion high-speed railway project that will link the two neighboring countries and extend to Thailand, although the Chinese government has yet to sign a contract to begin ...
India, Laos agree to allow direct flights
Vice-President Hamid Ansari on 18 September signed two memorandums of understanding with his counterpart in Laos, Bounyang Vorachith in the Presidential Palace Ho Kham. The MoUs cover an air services agreement — allowing airlines to start a direct flight between the two countries — and another agreement ...
Myanmar-China illegal timber trade still thriving: report
Timber extracted from Myanmar’s frontier forests is flowing into China in illegal transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to a report published on 17 September. The research, by the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and partly financed by the UK, the European ...
Sweet plans for future of Shan honey
Honey may soon join wine and coffee as among Shan State’s best-known local commodities, as production grows. Myanmar is set to export about 3500 tonnes of the sweet stuff this year, and experts say the “Made in Myanmar” honey label may soon spread. Rabbi Yossi Ives, chief ...
World Bank approves $400m electrification loan
The World Bank approved a US$400 million interest-free loan to provide financing and technical assistance to help bring electricity to more than 6.2 million people in Myanmar, the bank announced on 17 September. The loan will support Myanmar’s National Electrification Plan and was granted by the ...
Laos OKs economic zone for smaller Japanese companies
The Laotian government has given the green light to a special economic zone in the southern city of Pakse, a 625-hectare site dedicated to small and midsize Japanese companies. Businesses operating there will have corporate taxes waived for 10 years starting in the first profitable year, among ...
South East Asia emergency response team takes on region's deluge of disasters
After the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, international aid poured into Southeast Asia, but in both disasters the 10-nation regional body ASEAN was conspicuously absent, says disaster expert Arnel Capili. “Those were very big events that really affected the ...
