News

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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) ...

Neighboring countries have called on Laos to consider the cross-border environmental impacts of a hydropower plant it plans to build on the Mekong River. Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand expressed concern after the Mekong River Commission (MRC) completed a six-month consultation process for the Luang Prabang Dam project ...

A meeting was held in Hanoi on June 26 to review the project on support for preparing the readiness to carry out the international framework “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (REDD+) in Vietnam Phase 2 (FCPF-2). The programme, from November 2016 to June 30, 2020, has been implemented ...

A new study from an international team of researchers has looked at how residents in Vietnam and Kenya perceive those forced to migrate because of extreme climates. The research team, including Dr. Quynh Nguyen from The Australian National University (ANU) say climate-induced migration is becoming more ...

Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam requested Lao PDR to conduct rigorous transboundary impact assessments and enhance proposed measures to mitigate potential adverse impacts from the 1,460-megawatt Luang Prabang hydropower project, as the Mekong River Commission concluded a six-month prior consultation process for the project. At a ...