News
Shenzhen Institute of Planning to undertake Sihanoukville masterplan
The Shenzhen Urban Planning and Design Institute has been commissioned to undertake a masterplan to transform Sihanoukville into a modern sprawling metropolis, using the Shenzhen experience as its secret recipe. The institute is a planning, consulting, research and design agency that focuses on creating and pragmatically ...
Regional network to strengthen agriculture in Laos
A workshop on “Network for Agriculture and Rural Development Think-tanks for Countries in the Mekong sub-region” provided a platform for stakeholders to discuss their work plans. The workshop took place on Wednesday and was chaired by the Deputy Director General of the National Agriculture and Forestry ...
Italy supports Việt Nam in improving statistics system
Việt Nam and Italy have had success in their work together to improve the national Vietnamese statistic system, an official has said. Dr Nguyễn Bích Lâm, General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) of Việt Nam, made the statement at a meeting to assess the ...
EU Issues Damning Report on Cambodia Before Looming Deadline on Trade Benefits Decision
In a scathing report, the European Union warned Cambodia that it has not taken enough steps to prevent a loss of its special trade privileges, noting particularly “further deterioration” of its human rights record since a review process was launched nine months ago. The confidential 70-page ...
Parameswaran Ponnudurai
Safe Mekong Project Signatories Discuss Narcotics Suppression
The Thai government has also implemented a measure to reduce the demand for drugs in the country. This comes as new producers keep on emerging regardless of seizures. They will keep doing so as long as there is demand. Signatories of the Safe Mekong Coordination Project have met ...
Ground subsidence and sea level rise threaten Mekong Delta and millions of people
The Mekong River Delta is lower than previously thought. Ground subsidence and rising sea levels threaten the lives of more than 21 million people who inhabit the region as well as Vietnam’s food security since the latter grows 56 per cent of the country’s rice. The ...
Illegal snares killing SE Asia wildlife
The animals of Southeast Asia’s tropical rainforests are under threat. As if deforestation and habitat degradation weren’t enough to contend with, cheap, easy-to-produce illegal snares are being set at an alarming rate in the last refuges for wildlife in the region, indiscriminately killing and maiming ...
The plight of human trafficking survivors: Back from hell but to what?
Nguyen Thi Bien cannot speak Vietnamese properly since she was trafficked to China 28 years ago and virtually lost her mother tongue. She returned to Vietnam in August after Chinese authorities raided and deported undocumented immigrants. More about how she returned later. Cut to the present. In a countryside ...
Sen, Phan Duong
Cambodia's China-built runway irks US but locals have other concerns
The rural southwestern province of Koh Kong, previously off the international community’s radar screen, has drawn the global spotlight. That’s because a massive runway stretching approximately 3,200 meters appeared suddenly at a resort being developed by a Chinese company in this otherwise out-of-the-way province, about a ...
Tomoya Onishi
Major new project to use nature-based solutions to help Laos adapt to climate change
The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a major funder of climate projects, has approved a US$10 million project that’s expected to benefit 10 per cent of Laos’ population. The project is using nature-based solutions in four cities to build resilience towards ever-increasing floods ...
