News
Vietnam scores low for budget transparency as public participation remains 'limited'
Scoring only 18 out of 100 on an open budget index compiled by the International Budget Partnership, Vietnam’s budget transparency is deemed “scant” and far below the world average score of 45. The performance is slightly worse than that of 2012, when the country scored 19, according ...
Analysts: Vietnam primed for financial derivative market
Vietnam’s financial market holds promising potential and the basic foundations to develop derivative products, financial experts told a seminar held by the Hong Kong-based Asia Risk magazine in Singapore on 9 September. Keep reading ...
Trees ‘felled for pepper’
Batambang’s Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary is being illegally logged for pepper posts, with brokers bribing environment officers to transport the timber, residents and NGO workers have said. Keep reading ...
Land minister grilled at National Assembly
The government plans to distribute another 800,000 hectares of land to some 200,000 families as part of its land-titling scheme, the minister for land management announced on 10 September after being grilled by lawmakers. Keep reading ...
NGOs, Cambodia voice alarm at Lao decision to proceed with Don Sahong Dam
Cambodian officials vowed on 11 September to prevent neighbor Laos from going ahead with construction of the controversial Don Sahong dam without approval from fellow Mekong River basin countries that would be affected by the project. The Phnom Penh officials, as well as local and international non-governmental ...
Drought improves in Battambang; concerns remain
Despite improving drought-like conditions in Battambang province, farmers and rice millers alike are still concerned about yield and quality levels of rice in one of the country’s leading rice-producing regions. In last month’s report on the drought situation from the Agriculture Ministry, Battambang, along with Banteay ...
Lao authorities threaten to jail Christians for practising their religion
Local authorities in two villages in a central Lao province have violated the rights of Christians by threatening to jail those who continue to practice their religion after banning their activities last month, a source inside the country said. Authorities from the villages of Nhang ...
Mekong dwellers struggle to adapt to tides of change
Since its founding, the inhabitants of Can Tho city have sold their wares atop the water, which has become a tourist spectacle. This has been the way of life for as long as any resident here can remember, but things are changing. In recent years, local communities ...
Vietnam signs bilateral tourism cooperation agreements with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar
Tourism officials from Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar discussed solutions for luring tourists to their region and integrate their tourist industry as they met in Ho Chi Minh City on 9 September. The five countries are member of a political, economic, and cultural bloc known ...
Agreement signed to sustain fisheries
In the first such initiative, Vietnam’s Directorate of Fisheries and six other members signed an agreement on 9 September on Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the fisheries and aquaculture sector with the aim to support sustainable development in this sphere. Keep reading ...
