News
Laos’ human development improves slightly, remains at 137 out of 189 countries, territories
The Human Development Report ranks countries based on the Human Development Index (HDI) which measures average achievement on three basic aspects of human development, life expectancy, education, and per capita income. Between 1990 and 2019, the Lao PDR’s HDI value increased from 0.405 to 0.613, an ...
KPL
Finding community at a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Myanmar
In another world, I could have been checking into a hotel. Only instead of staff, two fellow COVID-19 patients welcomed me at the door, with a plastic box filled with toiletries, snacks and masks, and showed me to a small room I would share with another ...
Reuters
2020 review: 10 resilience defining stories in Vietnam
2020 has been defined mostly by the dogged resilience of the Vietnamese people in confronting unforgettable disasters, positively heightening the nation’s international profile. United front against Covid-19 Perseverance as severe drought parches Mekong Delta The 37th ASEAN Summit – an online triumph Together in grief as disasters devastate central ...
Phan Anh, Dat Nguyen
Anti-Myanmar hate speech flares in Thailand over virus
“Wherever you see Myanmar people, shoot them down,” read one Thai comment on YouTube after a surge of coronavirus cases among workers from Myanmar. The outbreak, first detected at a seafood market near Bangkok, has prompted a flare-up in such online hate speech as well as ...
Reporting by Shoon Naing in Yangon; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Sam Holmes
Delta blues? Tensions rise along the Mekong as science meets strategy
China has been ramping up its investments with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, which – according to American officials – is an attempt to compete with the Mekong River Commission (MRC). A competition over who dominates scientific and technical knowledge of the river indicates an escalation in the complexity of ...
Giulio Boccaletti
OPED: Thailand's economic outlook for 2021
The Thai economy will grow next year after contracting by almost 10% this year. Next year, the Thai economy is expected to expand 3 to 4% from this year. It will not be until the end of 2022 before the Thai economy returns to its ...
KIRIDA BHAOPICHITR/TDRI RESEARCH DIRECTOR
Hydropower vs Heritage: Will Laos Lose Luang Prabang?
The Lao government’s high-risk plan to install a massive dam on the Mekong River, perilously close to the renowned UNESCO World Heritage site of Luang Prabang, shows a disregard for its legal obligations to protect the renowned site, according to conservation experts. Minja Yang, the former ...
Tom Fawthrop
Trash talk: Why waste management is not a throwaway business
As waste continues to increase on Phnom Penh streets and decrease government coffers, everyone from policymakers to the public wants a solution. Khmer Times’ Tom Starkey spoke to community leader in sustainability and owner and founder of Phnom Penh restaurant Farm To Table Brittany Sims about why ...
Tom Starkey
Germany assists Thailand to 'go green'
Industry Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit has pledged to cooperate with the German-Thai Chamber of Commerce (GTCC) to promote clean industry, as a means of reducing pollution problems including PM2.5 and making Thai industry more sustainable. “The German-Thai Chamber of Commerce offers to help Thailand make its industrial ...
Post Reporters
Vietnam Slightly Advances on UN Human Development Index to No. 117 of 189
Over the last 30 years, Vietnam’s HDI (Human Development Index) has grown by 46%, amongst the biggest jump in the world. A United Nations report titled “Human Development and the Anthropocene” released last week places Vietnam at 117th out of 189 nations in terms of overall development. In the 2019 report, ...
Saigoneer