News
Laos, EU discuss targets for trade in legal timber products
Representatives of the European Union (EU) and the Lao government have held discussions on an agreement on combating illegal logging and promoting trade in legal timber products. The issue was discussed at the fourth Joint Expert Meeting (JEM) on a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on forest law ...
Charity movement launched on iNhandao platform
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam attended the programme “Connecting millions of hearts” in Hanoi on October 10 to launch a charity movement on the iNhandao platform and debut digital platforms in education, health care and culture. The event was part of the project on developing the digital ...
NVA
Testing times: Myanmar struggles to keep pace as COVID-19 takes off
On September 30, Myanmar announced a record 946 COVID-19 cases in a single day. Less noticed was that it also performed a record number of lab tests – 6,262, to be exact. As cases have increased, particularly in Yangon, numbers like this have quickly become the ...
AUNG PHAY KYI SOE
ADB supports Thailand green bonds for Covid-19 recovery
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is assisting the government of Thailand in designing, issuing and monitoring innovative capital market initiatives as part of the country’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in a manner aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ADB’s ...
Chito Santiago
Land reform: A vote-winner for the NLD
With the general election only weeks away – notwithstanding the potential impact of the second wave of COVID-19 – political parties are flooding social media with pledges and promises to woo voters. For the National League for Democracy, the November 8 election poses a new challenge: ...
CALLUM FURNESS
Vietnamese minister calls for urgent joint actions to conserve biodiversity
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, has called on countries to combine strength and coordinate actions in a more urgent, drastic and practical manner to protect biodiversity – a priceless natural resource. Ha made the appeal at ...
VNA
Cambodian farmers to get crop protection insurance cover, thanks to Global Parametrics
Parametric and index-based disaster risk transfer company, Global Parametrics (GP), has announced its support for the AGRIBEE Crop Insurance Pilot to provide extreme weather protection cover for smallholder rice farmers in Cambodia. GP is providing cover for the transaction from its Natural Disaster Fund (NDF). Through ...
Living Planet: The curse of clean energy — hydropower on the Mekong
The Mekong River in Southeast Asia flows for 4,350 kilometers from China to Vietnam through Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. China’s construction of large hydropower dams to feed the country’s growing energy needs is causing problems downriver, including dire impacts on the waters and fertile ...
Thao Nguyen Phan review – tribute to the Mekong River's myth and might
Thao Nguyen Phan’s Becoming Alluvium opens with sound: an outboard motor puttering in the dark. The tea-brown, silt-clouded water of the Mekong appears, gliding beneath the prow of a little boat. Lines from the great poet Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener lap the screen, concluding: “Why did the ...
Hettie Judah
CSOs urge ministry to release the full EIA
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have requested that the Ministry of Environment to publicly release the full details of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to ensure accountability and transparency of environmental governance in Cambodia. The request was made in the workshop on “Using Open EIA Reporting to ...
Sok Srey Lux