News
Construction of Vientiane station for Laos-China rail link begins
Laos has started building a railway station in Vientiane to service rail links with China slated to being operating next year. Laos and China hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the project in the Lao capital on Friday, the Vientiane Times reported. The station is a main hub for the ...
Post Reporters
Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam alarmed by Laos project
Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam have urged Laos to better assess transboundary impacts, and strengthen proposed measures to reduce any negative effect as it moves ahead with the construction of a dam. At a special joint committee session of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) earlier this week, ...
Shankar Ganesh
Major Impact from COVID-19 to Thailand’s Economy, Vulnerable Households, Firms: Report
Thailand’s economy is expected to be impacted severely by the COVID-19 pandemic, shrinking by at least 5 percent in 2020 and taking more than two years to return to pre-COVID-19 GDP output levels, according to the World Bank’s latest Thailand Economic Monitor, released today. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
World Bank Thailand
Thai farmers are trying a new, climate-friendly way to grow rice
A new agricultural program in central Thailand is working with farmers to change the way they grow rice, in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice paddies while saving water, time and money. The program, backed by the Thai government and German development agency ...
Skylar Lindsay
WB offers aid for higher education, urban development in Vietnam
On June 30, the World Bank’s (WB) board of executive directors approved the financing of two projects —to help build a climate-resilient city in the Mekong Delta and improve the quality of Vietnam’s three national universities—at US$422 million. The Vietnam University Development Project, financed through credit ...
Gia Phong
Farming of the Future
Innovative Thai start-ups are pushing technology to add value in agriculture and raise incomes Saraburi, a verdant central Thai province north of the capital, Bangkok, is known for spectacles like fields of sunflowers spreading beneath hills, and dragon fruit piled high like rubies at roadside stalls. ...
Laos to establish centre for food quality; no Covid-19 cases
Laos will establish the National Center for the Quality Inspection of Foodstuff and Beverage to ensure the product is safe for consumption. The National standards Certification and Quality Inspection Center under Laos Ministry of Science and Technology on Tuesday (June 30) signed a memorandum of agreement ...
Xinhua
COVID-19: A Magnifying Glass for the Mekong Region’s Data Ecosystem
By the time COVID-19 was announced as a Public Health Emergency at the end of January 2020, the need for more data to understand both the virus and its impacts was clear. Now, more than ever before, data are needed to support decision-making on developing effective solutions that ...
Confronting Southeast Asia’s Troubled Media Landscape
Earlier this month, Maria Ressa, a prominent journalist and outspoken critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, was found guilty of cyber libel in another concerning development for media freedom in the country. While the incident was notable on its own terms, it also spotlighted the wider troubles ...
Prashanth Parameswaran
Myanmar inks two electricity deals with Chinese LNG plants
The Myanmar government has signed two power purchase agreements (PPA) to buy electricity from two liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants totalling 580 megawatts. The project company of CNTIC VPower Group inked two five-year PPAs with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy’s Electric Power Generation Enterprise (EPGE) ...
