Bloomberg
Thailand Makes Its Own Covid-19 Tests to Avoid Import Reliance
Thailand is ramping up domestic production of Covid-19 test kits to avoid a potential shortage, as it prepares for a possible second wave of infections after most businesses and services reopened. “Thailand has always received criticism for testing too few, and that was the case at ...
Collapse in Myanmar Seafood Exports Puts 1 Million Jobs At Risk
About 1 million people may lose their jobs in Myanmar’s fisheries industry, with almost all exports ceasing since February as the spread of Covid-19 prompted major buyers, led by China and the U.S., to halt orders. Processing plants wouldn’t have been able to deliver anyway, as ...
Khine Lin Kyaw
Vietnam’s Mekong Delta Declares Emergency on Devastating Drought
Vietnam’s prolonged drought, coupled with an extensive buildup of salinity, have driven five provinces in the country’s rice bowl to declare a state of emergency. “This year’s drought and salinity have been way more devastating than what we saw four years ago,” said Nguyen Thien Phap, ...
Mai Ngoc Chau
Thailand Has a Developing Economy and a Big First World Problem
Getting old can be hard under any circumstances, and harder still when you’re poor. That’s the predicament for Thailand, the developing country first in line to face the consequences of a first-world-style baby bust. Data published last month by the United Nations show births in Thailand ...
Margo Towie, Jason Clenfield and Hannah Dormido
Vietnam Culls 1.7 Million Pigs as Virus Spreads to New Areas
Vietnam culled more than 1.7 million pigs as African swine fever spread across the country, with officials warning the disease may penetrate sizable commercial farms next. About 5% of the nation’s pig population has been culled as the number of infected provinces and cities increased to ...
Mai Ngoc Chau
Cambodia Faces Next Trade-Sanctions Move by the European Union
The European Union moved closer to imposing trade sanctions against Cambodia as a result of alleged human-rights violations in the country. The European Commission in Brussels has asked EU national governments to give the green light by Jan. 29 for suspending a policy that lets ...
A Chinese company reshaping the world leaves a troubled trail
CCCC, Belt and Road’s biggest builder, is besieged by allegations of fraud, corruption, and environmental damage. Keep reading ...
Hitachi Eyes Mekong Delta As Modernization Hits
Japanese conglomerate Hitachi is looking to Mekong Delta to boost infrastructure demand as modernization takes hold in Southeast Asia. Hitachi’s Asia and India chairman Kojin Nakakita sat down with Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin on the sideline of Asean WEF Summit in Hanoi. Hitachi sees Southeast Asia ...
China’s New Silk Road
Xi calls it the “project of the century,” a decades-long drive to grease the wheels of trade with massive infrastructure spending; Morgan Stanley estimates it will total $1.3 trillion by 2027. The Belt and Road is at the core of China’s foreign policy strategy and ...
How Taming the Mekong Could Give China Unprecedented Power
The deadly collapse of one of the dozen or so dams dotted along the Mekong River and its tributaries has highlighted the rapid development of a waterway that is increasingly important strategically for China and its neighbors. For hundreds of thousands of people living on ...
