News

Historic levels of saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta have caused coconuts in Ben Tre Province to shrink by half in size and farmers’ incomes by even more. One afternoon in early August, Tran Trung Tac, owner of a dwarf coconut grove, opens 100 coconuts one ...

As US-China tensions turn towards the Mekong River and its dams, the area near Laos’ latest hydropower project on the river is already seeing major controversy around existing dam projects. The Lao government is preparing to start construction on the Luang Prabang Dam, a 1,460-megawatt (MW) project that will be ...

Myanmar has suspended a 380-megawatt hydropower project at the Manipur River in Chin State due to high risks, U Tun Naing, Deputy Minister for Electricity and Energy, told the Hluttaw last week. “After a review at the State Economic Coordination Committee Meeting, this project was found ...

With the Thai baht weakening, Vietnamese rice is fetching 3 percent higher prices in global markets than varieties from Thailand. Vietnam’s 5-percent broken rice has been priced at $468-472 per ton since August 8, $15 more than its Thai rivals. The prices have risen by 6.8 ...

Cambodia’s embrace of new coal power projects is making the Southeast Asian state “less attractive” to international brands producing in the country. In a letter addressed to the Cambodian government and seen by the Nikkei Asian Review, several major companies expressed concern about the country’s plans ...

Southeast Asia’s response to the Covid‑19 outbreak has curtailed electricity use and industrial production, pushing down coal consumption even further this year, according to the latest report from a non-governmental organisation which monitors worldwide fossil fuel infrastructure. Even before Covid-19, new coal plant construction was already slowing in the ...

Thailand’s Environment Minister has warned that urgent action is needed to rebalance humans’ relationship with nature, or mankind may not live into the next century. In an address to diplomats, politicians and journalists on Friday (Aug 7), Mr Varawut Silpa-archa compared the challenges of fighting the ...

The public debt of Laos may increase to as much as 65 to 68 per cent of GDP in 2020 following a sharp fall in national revenue collection alongside an increase in loans due to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, according to a government official. Revenue collection ...

In his book, River of Time, Jon Swain evoked brilliantly the heady beauty of Indochina and the great Mekong Delta in the very south of Vietnam, where the river finally meets the South China Sea. He also captured the terrifying uncertainty as the Vietnam War came to ...

The latest reports from the Lower Mekong Basin are cause for growing concern that another period of drought will succeed that of 2019, affecting Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Expected rainfall from late May through June and July has not arrived, and the level of ...