News

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

In 2017, South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced the “New Southern Policy”, which is aimed at deepening relations with Southeast Asia to the extent that four other major powers — the United States, China, Japan and Russia — have done. In his tenure, he has visited ...

The government will light another 4000 villages across the country in the second phase of its electrification plan, said U Thura Aung Ko, chief engineer and project manager of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy. He added the agency has begun inviting tenders to supply equipment for ...

The National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) will ask the cabinet to adopt its guidelines on infrastructure development on Tuesday, as the government seeks to start working on the long-awaited link that will connect the Dawei Special Economic Zone in Myanmar with Eastern Economic ...