News
‘It can be pretty horrifying’: how Cambodia’s land grabs are ruining lives
The monk looks haggard in the midmorning sun, scanning the views through surrounding trees while chainsaws drone in the near distance. “It’s as if a storm has come and the animals have fled like there has been a hurricane,” he says from his sparse, open-air pagoda ...
Andrew Haffner
Việt Nam – Laos friendship, solidarity, cooperation to further thrive: President
Talking to the press on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the nations’ diplomatic relations (September 5, 1962 – 2022), he said with their time-tested relationship, Việt Nam and Laos have many advantages and great potential to increase the scale of cooperation. It requires both ...
VNS
Việt Nam needs laws for sustainable energy development
The absence of laws on energy and in particular renewable energy is causing an imbalance between the stages of production, transmission and consumption of coal-fired power, solar power, and wind power in Việt Nam. Experts mentioned this shortcoming at a recent event within the framework of ...
VNS
Harvesters in Mekong Delta can't operate for lack of oil
In the past few days, many farmers in some localities in the Mekong Delta are in despair because the rice in the summer-autumn rice in the paddy fields was ripe but harvesters did not have oil to operate. Mr. Giang Van Bao, an owner of a rice harvester ...
Tuan Quang - Translated by Anh Quan
Revolutionary changes proposed to draft Gender Affirmation Law
Medical interventions are now non-obligatory for people who want to be recognised as transgender, and trans men are eligible for maternity leave should they be pregnant. These amendments were proposed to the draft Gender Affirmation Law and were discussed during the Policy Dialogue on International Experiences ...
VNA
Mekong tributaries burst banks, flooding 4,000 rai
Two major tributaries of the Mekong River have burst their banks, flooding about 4,000 rai of paddy fields in Sri Songkhram district of this northeastern province. The water level of the Mekong in Nakhon Phanom on Saturday was about 8 metres, or 4m below the spill-over ...
PATTANAPONG SRIPIACHAI
Rising Salinity Threatens Rice Crops on Southeast Asia’s Sinking Coast
Prak Nhorn has no hope for his rice crop this year. “When I transplant seedlings, they die out. The salt is still in the soil,” said the farmer from Slab Ta Aon village, a riverside settlement roughly 150 kilometers southwest of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, and ...
Elise Cutts
Thailand grapples with allowing more Chinese landowners
Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades, but foreign land ownership has long been restricted. Foreigners can own no more than 49% of any condominium development and are restricted from owning most freehold estates. Yet Thailand is keen to attract ...
PREM SINGH GILL
Vietnam’s broken rice bowl
For generations farmers and their families harvesting their rice paddies in the fertile Mekong Delta have relied on the river’s bountiful fish resources and rice production for their subsistence. For millions, the pulse of life is the constant flow of the river. Those living along the ...
JAMES BORTON
Mining the Mekong: Land and livelihoods lost to Cambodia’s thirst for sand
Some 45 kilometers, or 28 miles, up the Mekong River from Phnom Penh, Voi Thy sat and watched as 12 boats pumped sand from the riverbed. Another 11 boats, weighed low by their quarry of freshly mined sand, were making the glacial journey past her ...
Gerald Flynn, Vutha Srey