News

Myanmar’s government says it will provide a fourth round of cash handouts for those struggling because of COVID-19. However, only the Yangon regional government has announced the cash plan and The Irrawaddy could not confirm if it would be replicated elsewhere. “This time the government will provide ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$484-million (624.52-billion-kyat) loan to construct a new expressway connecting Bago Region and Mon State, which lie along Japan’s planned East-West Economic Corridor, a grand infrastructure scheme for the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The ADB said the new GMS ...

The Waste Summit Cambodia 2020 began on Monday and will run till Friday, covering a range of topics including using waste for financial benefit, the importance of waste separation, creating energy from waste and the circular economy ideology. This year’s summit is being held under the ...

Vietnam, as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, is set to develop a roadmap to implement market-based carbon pricing tools as part of its effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Nguyen Tuan Quang, deputy director of the Climate Change Department under the Ministry of ...

Vietnam is set to receive tens of millions of dollars to help it keep a promise not to cut down trees, part of a controversial World Bank program that critics say does not produce its intended effect — carbon emission reductions. The Southeast Asian nation has ...

Across Southeast Asia, governments continue to view coal as a reliable and inexpensive energy source, despite the rapidly falling costs of renewable power and the growing number of companies making vocal commitments to meeting all their demand with it. These companies are clear about what ...

The rapid rise of COVID-19 in Myanmar has caught the attention of Asian neighbors and international organizations. Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, and China have provided aid to Myanmar to fight the virus. They are well aware that if the second wave in Myanmar ...

Deputy Transport Minister Thaworn Senneam called for the appointment of a committee on safe labour mobility during the 24th Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Ministerial Conference held online on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by GMS ministers from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The ...

With far-reaching implications for the upcoming elections in Myanmar and with the US tentatively wading into river governance, the Mekong region has become a contentious staging ground for China’s wider goals in Southeast Asia.  Sebastian Strangio’s new book In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century draws ...

Every two years, the World Wide Fund for Nature publishes a report that sums up the state of the world’s wildlife based on the monitoring of its projects around the world. The latest WWF report, titled the “Living Planet Report,” describes stunning declines in biodiversity caused ...