News
Myanmar arrests one suspect, seeks second in record amphetamines bust
Police in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon have arrested one suspect and are searching for another they say were involved in what may be the country’s largest seizure of amphetamines to date, an official said on 12 August. Authorities discovered more than 26 million tablets of the illegal ...
Lao authorities free woman detained for alleged extortion photos
Authorities in Laos have released a young woman who had been detained for more than two months after a photo she took was posted on Facebook, allegedly showing police officers extorting money from her brother during a stop for a traffic violation, according to a ...
Myanmar flood death toll tops 100
The death toll from severe flooding across Myanmar has topped 100, state media have reported, with nearly 1 million people affected as fears intensify for the country’s crucial rice bowl region. Floods from a heavy monsoon season have cut through South and Southeast Asia in recent ...
Rakhine, delta brace for more bad weather
Western Myanmar is bracing itself for more foul weather as the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology yesterday forecast additional rain along the southern Rakhine coast and Ayeyarwady Region. The department forecast heavy rain in northwest Myanmar and southern Ayeyarwady Region until 14 August. Keep reading ...
Vietnam's customs sector urged to further cut procedure time
Vietnam’s customs sector should build on the positive outcomes in the past two years and further reduce procedure processing time, an official told a workshop in Hanoi on 11 August, adding that a one-day reduction in customs clearance time in cross-border trade could save the economy ...
Malaysia to open trade and industry office in Vietnam
The Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry will open a representative office in Hanoi latter this year to embrace economic links with Vietnam. Minister Mustapa Mohamed made the announcement to reporters after his attendance at a dialogue with members of the ASEAN Business Club. Keep reading ...
Yuan devaluation seen reigniting currency wars in Asia
A measure of the region’s 10 most-traded currencies excluding the yen is set to decline for a third year, its longest losing streak since 1997, amid signs the US will raise interest rates for the first time in a decade. The People’s Bank of China’s cut ...
About 71% of businesses satisfied with Vietnam's tax procedures reform
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and General Department of Taxation, under the Ministry of Finance, revealed a report on the satisfaction of businesses with the tax administrative procedures reform in 2014 in Hanoi on 11 August. Keep reading ...
Vietnam widens dong’s trading band after China devalues yuan
Vietnam’s central bank doubled the width of the dong’s trading band 12 August, a day after China further weakened its currency, pushing the yuan into its biggest devaluation in two decades. The State Bank of Vietnam widened the dong’s trading band against the U.S. dollar to ...
The labeling problem in Southeast Asia's refugee crisis
In the ‘crisis’ involving the displaced Rohingya people in Southeast Asia, the preferred institutional label is “irregular migrants.” It is a term which implies that migration is well-regulated, which is not the case in South East Asia. The ‘labeling’ or construction of identities of social groups ...
