News
Cambodia is prime for first slaughterhouse
Riding the wave of rising demand for beef in Asia, Cambodia’s long-awaited slaughterhouse could not come soon enough, with an emerging middle class in Cambodia also hungry for more premium meat from Down Under. Since 2013, Cambodian company SLN Meat Supply has been building Cambodia’s first ...
Koreans to conduct Laos – Vietnam feasibility study
Korea Rail Network Authority and Seoul University are to conduct a feasibility study for a new rail link between Vientiane and the southern Vietnamese port of Vung Tau. Keep reading ...
Vietnamese think economy not running well, prices still too high: survey
A survey has found that many Vietnamese are not happy with high consumer prices and the widening rich and poor gap in their country. Members from the World Bank and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said at a conference that their new survey found ...
Vietnam’s name-and-shame corporate tax list enjoys success
Vietnam has found an effective way to crack down on tax laggards as it struggles to fund infrastructure projects and curb rising debt: make the names of the offending businesses public to shame them into paying up. The Ministry of Finance published a first-ever list of ...
Thai locals worried about plans to divert water from Mekong
A network of Thais living along the Mekong River have voiced their concern about a plan to divert water from the river to special economic zones. “Careful studies must be conducted before such a plan is implemented,” said network representative Jintana Kaysornsombat, who described the plan as a ...
Thai court holds hope for transboundary justice in the Mekong
The closely watched lawsuit filed by Thai Mekong communities against the Xayaburi Dam’s power purchase agreement (PPA) has reached a critical juncture: the final day that the Administrative Court will accept evidence into the case. It has been just over a year since the Thai Supreme Administrative ...
Ceasefire negotiators dig in for more talks as clashes continue
Nationwide ceasefire talks billed as a last chance to forge a deal before the start of election campaigning look set to continue as both sides of Myanmar’s long-running conflicts haggle over details of the text and who will sign it. U Hla Maung Shwe, a senior ...
China responds angrily to life sentences for illegal loggers
Beijing hit out at long jail sentences handed to more than 150 Chinese nationals for illegal logging in Myanmar, in the latest tremor to shake relations between the neighbours. The mass sentencing, which has sparked outraged editorials in Chinese state-run media, comes after the loggers were ...
Ministry approves nationwide union in Myanmar
The Ministry of Labour has officially approved the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM) as Myanmar’s first national-level labour organisation, despite many other unions applying for similar status. The ministry said it approved the CTUM application because it had fulfilled all requirements specified in the Labour ...
Caution urged as Myanmar poised to embrace more mining
New mining laws in Myanmar are expected to come into place after November’s national elections, enticing more foreign investment, but rights groups fear local communities could be imperiled without more solid legal protections. Analysts say Myanmar’s mining industry is still at the “frontier” stage of development ...