News
INSIGHT - If your coffee's going downhill, blame climate change
Coffee leader Brazil is turning to stronger and more bitter robusta beans, which are hardier in the heat than the delicate arabica, in a sign of how climate change is affecting global markets – and shaping our favourite flavours. Brazil is the world’s biggest producer of ...
Reuters
Sex workers fighting for human rights among world’s most ‘at risk activists’
Sex worker activists are among the most at risk defenders of human rights in the world, facing multiple threats and violent attacks, an extensive investigation has found. The research, published today by human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, found that their visibility as sex workers who are advocates ...
Sarah Johnson
Ministry eyes green lane for waterway rice transport
The Ministry of Industry and Trade wants a green lane in waterways for rice transport since 95 percent of the grain in the Mekong Delta is transported by water. The delta is Vietnam’s rice bowl. It said difficulty in harvesting and transporting paddy in the south ...
Anh Minh
COVID-19 Has Resulted in Massive Southeast Asian Job Losses
Southeast Asian nations have suffered “unprecedented” employment losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said today, suggesting that the region faces a long road out of its current Delta-variant maelstrom. While the year 2020 marked the high-water mark of the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Sebastian Strangio
Migrant domestic workers 'need jabs'
Labour rights advocates have urged the authorities to vaccinate migrant domestic helpers to protect households against Covid-19. Adisorn Kerdmongkol, a member of the Migrant Network Group (MNG), told an online discussion organised by the House committee on labour on Monday that more than 100,000 migrant workers are ...
PENCHAN CHAROENSUTHIPAN
Thailand’s State Enterprises invest over 100 billion bahtin energy infrastructure projects
The State Enterprise Policy Office reports that state enterprises have invested more than 100 billion baht in energy infrastructure projects, under the government’s economic stimulus policy, in the first half of the year. Deputy government spokeswoman RachadaDhanadirek said most of the investment has gone into large projects by PTT Plc ...
Pattaya Mail
Laos govt reveals debt payment plan; determined to pay off US$14bil owing over the next five years
Revenue earned from potential mining operations, revamped state enterprises and from other as yet untapped sources will be used to pay debts amounting to almost US$14 billion, the government has told the National Assembly (NA). Foreign debt has accumulated to about US$13 billion and domestic debt ...
Traffic pileups cause HCMC to hastily revoke Covid travel declaration
HCMC has scrapped a requirement for people to make a travel declaration at Covid-19 checkpoints just two days after introducing it. On Saturday it had said everyone out on the streets has to fill in a travel declaration form at suckhoe.dancuquocgia.gov.vn. Created by the Ministry of Public ...
Gia Minh
Trains to arrive next month for trial run of Laos-China railway
The Laos-China railway project will bring in locomotives, electric multiple unit (EMU) trains and other equipment to conduct the first trial run of the railway in October. The plan was presented at the 10th Laos-China Railway Project Steering Committee Meeting held in Vientiane on Wednesday, attended ...
Phomphong Laoin
Pandemic wears out Mekong Delta farm cooperatives
Plummeting sales due to Covid-19 and a pileup of inventories mean agricultural cooperatives in Vinh Long and Soc Trang provinces are at the end of their rope. Nguyen Ngoc Bao, chairman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, said farming cooperatives are plagued by broken supply chains, ballooning ...
Thi Ha, Anh Minh