News

The Great Pacific garbage patch is a collection of plastic and floating trash with two enormous masses of ever-growing garbage. The patch consists of finger-sized bits of plastic – often microscopic particles, chemical sludge, wood pulp, and other debris trapped by the northern circulating currents ...

The Vietnamese Government has committed to joining hands with governments in the region and the world to reduce biodiversity loss by 2030 for sustainable development. Deputy head of the Vietnam Environment Administration’s Biodiversity Conservation Agency and head of Vietnam’s ASEAN working group on biodiversity preservation, Hoang ...

The summit and related meetings, slated for November 12-15, “are the most important activity of ASEAN this year, attracting widespread attention both inside and outside the region,” Nguyen Quoc Dung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and General Secretary of the National ASEAN 2020 Committee, said ...

A surge in fake news around Southeast Asia, particularly bogus COVID-19 information, has prompted leaders to explore a regional crackdown after a suggestion from a Vietnamese security official. Police agencies in the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries – which represent a total population ...

Two events happened last month that went largely unnoticed by most of the mainstream media in Southeast Asia. One was the third Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders’ Meeting between China and the five Mekong members of Asean — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The other ...

The United States said it would provide at least $153 million (119.43 million pounds) to Mekong countries for collaborative projects in the region, Vietnamese state television (VTV) reported on Friday, citing U.S. State Department officials. The pledges, made at the first Mekong-U.S. Partnership ministerial meeting, will ...

The ASEAN Secretariat has hosted an online conference to strengthen efforts, coordination and preparation for tackling transboundary haze pollution, which is predicted to peak in August and September. The event, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)’s Measurable Action for Haze-Free Sustainable Land Management in Southeast Asia ...

The ASEAN region lost about 33 per cent of its mangrove forests between 1980 and 2020, a decrease of more than 63,000sq km, said the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB). Nations that comprise ASEAN have just around 43,000sq km of mangrove forests remaining. The ACB statement was ...

Forest fires are a major source of transboundary haze in the ASEAN region. It is particularly pronounced in the dry season during the first half of the year for the Mekong subregion and second half of the year, most notably from July to September, for the southern ASEAN region.  The ASEAN region contains over half of the world’s peatland, a valuable ecosystem critical for ...

Cambodia and other Asean member states have discussed the future of the coal mining business for the power sector in the region, according to the Cambodia Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME). The Ministry said the discussion was made at the Asean Coal Business Roundtable Dialogue ...