News
IIP growth drops

Việt Nam’s index of industrial production rose by 7.2 per cent in the first 10 months of 2016, according to the General Statistics Office. The increase was much lower than that of the same period last year due to strong decline in ore mining. In ...
Bank to lend to develop HCM City grassroots-level hospitals

The Housing Development Commercial Joint Stock Bank last week signed an agreement with the HCM City Department of Health to provide credit to buy medical equipment for grassroots-level hospitals and set up a social work division at all hospitals by 2020.Keep reading ...
Chinese group backs poverty eradication efforts
The International Poverty Reduction Centre in China will provide US$5 million this year to assist in eradicating poverty in two villages in Vientiane and Luang Prabang province. The money will be used to alleviate poverty in Xam village of Sangthong district, Vientiane and in Xienglome ...
Minister vows action against out-of-date, contaminated foods
Action has been and will continue to be taken to prevent the sale of out-of-date and contaminated foods as well as the provision of unfair services that continue to surface, a minister told the National Assembly recently. Minister of Industry and Commerce, Ms Khemmani Pholsena, ...
South Korean investors lambast business obstacles in field

South Korean investors have begun complaining of irregularities they face in running their operations in Indonesia, amid the government’s efforts to improve the business climate. Despite applauding Indonesia’s attempts to ease the business atmosphere by issuing economic policy packages, the Korean Chamber of Commerce and ...
Cambodian Deputy PM observes fish passage improvements at Don Sahong dam
A high-ranking delegation from Cambodia led by Foreign Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mr Hor Namhong visited the Don Sahong hydropower project in Champassak province on October 29 to observe progress of the project, especially fish passage improvements. Mr Hor Namhong and his delegation are ...
Nearly $1 billion in forest carbon finance committed in 2015

The inclusion of the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation program, known as REDD+, as a standalone article in the Paris Climate Agreement was widely hailed as an encouraging political signal that protecting forests and other valuable carbon sinks would henceforth be a ...
Experts warn Mekong Delta agriculture, livelihoods face serious threats

Even though the latest El Niño wound down in Vietnam in September, it left in its wake diminished water supplies, risks to people’s health and food security, and a loss of livelihoods. The effects of the severe drought that the El Niño weather phenomenon—exacerbated by climate change—delivered ...
NA members want tougher oversight on chemical use
National Assembly members have proposed that the government impose tougher measures in managing the distribution and use of dangerous chemicals so they can be brought under control. NA members expressed their wish on October 31 when debating the NA’s Standing Committee oversight of social and environmental ...
Myanmar's logging ban feeds shadow economy of illegal trade

Sitting in a shop on the riverfront in Mandalay just last week, Win Nyunt assessed whether it was safe to hide a ton of illegally logged teak in a nearby monastery at midnight. “If I put the logs in the monastery it is safer, but I ...