News
Flood victims to get extra rice

The United Nations World Food Programme will support flood-affected people in Chin State with 500 tonnes of rice, as they continue to struggle after landslides and flood waters ravaged swathes of land in the country’s poorest state last year. More than 9 million people were affected ...
That Luang Marsh SEZ condos have wide appeal

A majority of people buying condo apartments at That Luang Marsh Specific Economic Zone (SEZ) in Vientiane are Lao or of Lao origin living in France, officials in charge of the project have said. Vice President of the zone’s management board Mr Pheng Inthilath told Vientiane ...
Attapeu hopes to build wind power
The wind speeds in some parts of Attapeu province are sufficient for the development of wind power in the neighbourhood however wind turbines are not yet seen there. Director of the provincial Energy and Mines Department Mr Vithaya Phommachanh told Vientiane Times on 10 February that there ...
Save the Children supports Lao children's education

Save the Children has agreed to support two projects for the Ministry of Education and Sports, aiming to develop education for Lao children. The first project is entitled ‘School Quality Improvement Programme II in Borikhamxay, Xayaboury and Luang Prabang provinces.’ It aims to improve the quality of ...
Remaining Montagnards not refugees, ministry says
Less than a month after the government announced that more than 170 Montagnard asylum seekers would have their refugee applications processed, an Interior Ministry spokesman said on 10 February that the group had not met the criteria for refugee status and would be returned to Vietnam. However, ...
Mekong nations launch fresh drug blitz
Countries in the Mekong region have launched the third phase of drug crackdowns along the Mekong River and in the Golden Triangle. Narong Rattanakul, secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, on 10 February revealed progress in the Safe Mekong Joint Operation to combat drug trafficking in the ...
Drug center will not pursue 18 still free after mass escape
After more than 40 men broke out of a Phnom Penh drug rehabilitation center on 5 February, officials said this week that they have called off efforts to arrest 18 escapees who remain at large, instead asking for their families to return them voluntarily. A total ...
Action programme on sustainable production and consumption approved

Seventy per cent of enterprises in Vietnam with high energy needs and emissions and 50 per cent of industrial production establishments will apply clean and energy-saving technologies by 2020. This is the agenda of a newly approved national action programme on sustainable production and consumption for ...
Hanoi targets reduction in power safety violations

Hanoi has targeted reduction in violations of safety regulations for the high-voltage grid by 30 per cent in this year, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade has said. Le Hong Thang, director of the department, who is also deputy head of the city’s steering committee ...
Cambodian activists want Laos dam on US-ASEAN agenda

Civil society groups are calling for Laos’ Don Sahong hydropower dam project to be discussed when Southeast Asian leaders meet with President Barack Obama next week at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, California. The unprecedented U.S.-hosted ASEAN summit comes amid increased efforts by the Obama ...