News
US claims China’s ‘manipulation’ of Mekong is ‘urgent challenge’ for Southeast Asia
A senior US diplomat on Thursday said China’s “manipulation” of water flows in the Mekong River – currently at record lows – was an immediate challenge to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, signalling the issue could be on the agenda in a regional forum ...
Bhavan Jaipragas
Thailand reports 1st local coronavirus case in 100 days
A prison inmate in Thailand has tested positive for the coronavirus in the country’s first confirmed locally transmitted case in 100 days, health officials said Thursday. They identified the inmate as a 37-year-old man arrested for drug abuse who was brought to prison in Bangkok on ...
Busaba Sivasomboon | AP
Thailand Receives Grant to Protect the Ozone Layer and Climate
Thailand signed a US$5 million grant agreement with the World Bank today in support of reducing the import and use of ozone-depleting chemicals by 2023 by more than 60 percent, as part of the country’s obligations under the Montreal Protocol. Thailand is one of the world’s ...
Newsroom
Mekong Delta needs $6.7 billion for smart climate change projects
The Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s agriculture hub, needs $4.7 to $6.7 billion in 2021-2025 for smart projects to tackle climate change, the World Bank says. A report released by the bank last week says there are considerable opportunities for further development of the Mekong Delta region, which ...
Hoang Vu
Cambodia plans China-style internet firewall
Cambodia’s government will route all web traffic through a “national internet gateway” under plans that human rights advocates fear will see critical content blocked by a China-style firewall. The plans are laid out in a yet-to-be-signed sub-decree drafted in July and obtained by the Nikkei Asian ...
SHAUN TURTON
Deforestation Brings Hardship For Cambodia’s Wild Honeybee Hunters
Every morning at 5:30, Yang Phorn and some of his neighbors from a village west of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, climb on motorbikes to go honeybee hunting in a forest far from home. Before the 47-year-old and the others set, they prepare bags of rice and ...
RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Another Lao Arrested For Criticism of Government on Social Media
A Lao man who had complained about corruption in the communist-run country on social media was arrested at his home in southern Laos last week and is being questioned in jail about links to “an anti-government group of overseas Laotians,” police sources told RFA Tuesday. The ...
RFA Lao service, Translated by Sidney Khotpanya and Ounkeo Souksavanh, Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Facebook joins flood, drought alert efforts on Mekong River
Facebook and the Mekong River Commission (MRC) launched a collaboration initiative Monday to provide early flood alert and drought monitoring information to Mekong nations. The MRC stated it has installed 22 hydrological stations along the main channel in the lower Mekong River basin to monitor and ...
Nguyen Quy
Vietnam dodged the coronavirus bullet, so why are its workers struggling?
Along a busy highway on the outskirts of Vietnam’s largest city, a worn-out looking woman carrying all her worldly possessions in a handful of plastic bags picks her way through a web of swaying hammocks, looking for one that’s empty so she can lay her ...
Sen Nguyen
That Luang Marsh Specific Economic Zone expected to be completed by 2030
The development of the That Luang Marsh Specific Economic Zone, located in the heart of Vientiane is expected to be completed by 2030, according to Mrs Huang Xiuwen, Vice President of the That Luang Marsh Specific Economic Zone. “This project will be able to attract more ...
