News
Drug-resistant malaria spreading fast in Southeast Asia
A new study in the Lancet Infectious Diseasesindicates that resistance to the first-line treatment for malaria in Southeast Asia began to emerge several years before it was first detected and is linked to an aggressive strain that has spread rapidly across the region. Experts say the ...
CIDRAP
Searching for sustainable energy in the Mekong
Southeast Asian governments are starting to wake up to the vast potential of solar energy, under pressure from civil society groups that insist it is time to get on board with a global revolution in renewable energy.[]This global change has lessons for Southeast Asia, especially ...
Tom Fawthrop
China's plan to buy influence and undermine democracy
[] To enhance its economic and political clout, China has made substantial inroads across Southeast Asia on the back of multi-billion-dollar infrastructure and investment deals like the one in Cambodia. This is how China will engage with the world for the foreseeable future. At the ...
Philip Heijmans
Southeast Asia is world's hotspot for land disputes: report
Businesses in Southeast Asia are increasingly counting the cost of land grabs, more than half of which result in delayed projects and nearly three-quarters of which lead to lawsuits, according to a wide-ranging research report. Out of a sample of 51 major land disputes surveyed across ...
Simon Roughneen
Mind the hype: Despite huge potential, solar energy in SE Asia is behind a cloud
Sunny Southeast Asia has double the solar energy potential of Northern Europe, but the market hype is not living up to the reality on the ground. Thailand leads and Indonesia lags in a sector direly needed to fight climate change and meet the region’s ballooning ...
Robin Hicks
ADB puts Thailand’s GDP growth forecast at 3.2%
The Asian Development Bank has slightly revised up its forecast for Thailand’s 2016 economic growth from 3 per cent to 3.2 per cent, praising the country’s investment in infrastructure. “Government infrastructure investment is a key contributor to growth in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand,” ...
WHO: 90 percent of world's population breathe dirty air

Nine out of 10 people globally live in places with poor air quality, the World Health Organization has said, blaming a worldwide air pollution crisis for being a major factor in millions of deaths per year. In a new report released on September 27, the health agency ...
Farming mega-mergers threaten food security, say campaigners

Deals would put the majority of seeds, chemicals and GM traits in the hands of three companies, deepening poverty for small-scale farmers. When an Indian farmer plants his cotton crop, there’s at least a 75% chance the seeds have been been bought from a company owned ...
Look to ASEAN for promising renewable energy markets

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN is a political and economic organization of ten Southeast Asian countries. Formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, membership has since expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Covering more than ...
Vietnam has one of the least powerful passports in Southeast Asia

Faring poorly on an international passport index, Vietnam possesses one of the least powerful passports in the region. Ranking 74th on the World Economic Forum’s Passport Index, Vietnam, together with Cambodia, possesses one of the least powerful passports in Southeast Asia. Citizens from the two countries can visit ...