News
Deconstructing China’s energy security strategy
Given continued American global naval supremacy, which is unlikely to be challenged successfully in the foreseeable future, Beijing’s highest strategic priority is to ensure energy security by connecting friendly major oil and gas producers to China via pipelines transiting through land routes beyond the effective ...
Vietnam facing water security challenges
Vietnam’s demand for water is skyrocketing while water resources are being depleted, certain river basins are being overexploited and competition for water resources is soaring. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said in a report that the basins of some rivers like Ma, Huong and ...
Indonesia eases ban on mineral exports
Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on January 12 announced sweeping changes to mining regulations that allow exports of nickel ore and bauxite for another five years under certain conditions. The announcement illustrates the challenges facing the resource-rich country, which instituted a ban on mineral ore ...
Honda idles Thai auto capacity amid weak sales
Honda Motor will halt one of its three automobile assembly lines in Thailand by the end of March, a move that amounts to a capacity reduction in a market short on growth. One of the two lines at the Japanese automaker’s plant in Ayutthaya Province, ...
Asia's smallest economies are among its fastest growing
Asia’s smallest economies are growing faster than giants like China, according to the World Bank. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar will post the most rapid expansions in Asia after India from 2017 to 2019, sustaining growth rates of close to 7 percent, according to forecasts released this week. ...
Central bank of Vietnam: restructuring of banks needs legal framework
Vietnam will step up the restructuring of the banking sector this year but this process will require certain regulations to be revised to create a favorable legal framework, the governor of the State Bank of Vietnam said. Le Minh Hung said at a VietinBank 2017 ...
2018 budget deficit hiked
The government has agreed to set a larger budget deficit of 450 billion baht for fiscal 2018, marking a fresh attempt to rev up the economy. The next fiscal year’s budget expenditure is set at 2.9 trillion baht, with revenue collection of 2.45 trillion baht, ...
The Salween Peace Park: a radical, grassroots alternative to development in Karen State
A path has opened for environmental conservationists and rights advocates to strengthen their fight against gold mining and other socially and environmentally destructive projects in the rich forests of Karen State in eastern Myanmar: the Salween Peace Park. The 5,200-square-kilometer Peace Park is a radical ...
The Dammed Don: Lao hydropower project pushes ahead despite alarm from scientists
Snaking down the length of the Mekong River the beautifully detailed map looks strikingly like those marking the distribution of unexploded ordnance in Laos. The red dots that pockmark the course of the river, from its origins in the highlands of China to its outlet ...
Mines rules to be submitted for govt review this month
The new Myanmar Mining Law could soon have regulatory teeth that support the implementation of the law and establish a state and Union power division in the licensing process, The Myanmar Times has learned. The Mines Rules, which will essentially provide the fine print details ...
