News
82nd joint patrol on Mekong River concludes
The 82nd Mekong River joint patrol led by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand was concluded Friday afternoon at Guanlei Port in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Eight vessels and 150 law enforcement officials from the four countries participated in the mission, which covered 560 km in ...
Warnings over new law to protect workers in Thai fishing industry
A new law to address abuses in Thailand’s multi-billion dollar fishing industry contains loopholes, labor rights campaigners said on Thursday, warning of difficulties in enforcement. The legislation published on Wednesday follows years of global scrutiny over abuse of Thai and migrant workers and mandates basic rights ...
Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Confirms China Will Halt Mekong Rapids Blasting
Mr. Niwat Roykaew, founder of the Rak Chiang Khong Group in northern Thailand, has shared a letter he received on behalf of the Network of Thai People in Eight Mekong Provinces from Mr. Don Pramudwinai, the Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs, that confirms media reports in March ...
Pianporn Deetes
Minister to push for two more Mekong bridges
The Transport Ministry will push for a 4-billion-baht investment in two new bridges over the Mekong River linking Thailand with Laos. Transport Ministry Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Tuesday the 5th Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge linking Thailand’s Bung Kan with Laos’ Borikhamsay with an investment cost of 2.5 billion ...
Thailand to junk three kinds of plastic by end of this year
End of this year, Thailand will be free from three types of plastic – microbeads, cap seals and oxo-degradable plastics – and from four other types of single-use plastics by 2022, according to a road map that got the Cabinet’s initial nod on Tuesday. The Plastic ...
Activist ‘victim’ of NCPO’s forest policy
Nittaya vows to keep fighting for land rights as Court slaps her with four months in jail, Bt40,000 in fines. THE APPEALS Court yesterday upheld a guilty verdict and jail term against a land-rights activist over forest encroachment. But in the eyes of many, Nittaya ...
Chularat Saengpassa
Bangkok is sinking fast
For the more or less 10 million people living in Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok, flooding is a common and recurring phenomenon. This is partly due to the city’s geographic location at the southern end of the Chao Phraya River Basin, as well as its ...
Jason Thomas
Thailand Invests Over 3 Billion USD in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)
The Government of Thailand is striving to turn Thailand into a transport hub for six countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), following an infrastructure development project worth 100 billion baht (over 3 billion USD) in the Thai border provinces. Speaking with reporters on May 10, ...
New regulation lifts ban on export of elephants
ELEPHANTS and elephant-related products can again be exported from Thailand under a new regulation from the Commerce Ministry, which may provoke controversy and debate over whether it violates the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). However, the National Park, ...
Pratch Rujivanarom
Amata gets IFC backing in sustainability push
The industrial sector in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam contributed 32.3 per cent of the region’s GDP in 2017 and provided an estimated 20 per cent of the employment, said the IFC, the private-sector arm of the World Bank. It said that industrial zones provide ...