News
Migrant domestic workers 'need jabs'
Labour rights advocates have urged the authorities to vaccinate migrant domestic helpers to protect households against Covid-19. Adisorn Kerdmongkol, a member of the Migrant Network Group (MNG), told an online discussion organised by the House committee on labour on Monday that more than 100,000 migrant workers are ...
PENCHAN CHAROENSUTHIPAN
Thailand’s State Enterprises invest over 100 billion bahtin energy infrastructure projects
The State Enterprise Policy Office reports that state enterprises have invested more than 100 billion baht in energy infrastructure projects, under the government’s economic stimulus policy, in the first half of the year. Deputy government spokeswoman RachadaDhanadirek said most of the investment has gone into large projects by PTT Plc ...
Pattaya Mail
Laos govt reveals debt payment plan; determined to pay off US$14bil owing over the next five years
Revenue earned from potential mining operations, revamped state enterprises and from other as yet untapped sources will be used to pay debts amounting to almost US$14 billion, the government has told the National Assembly (NA). Foreign debt has accumulated to about US$13 billion and domestic debt ...
Traffic pileups cause HCMC to hastily revoke Covid travel declaration
HCMC has scrapped a requirement for people to make a travel declaration at Covid-19 checkpoints just two days after introducing it. On Saturday it had said everyone out on the streets has to fill in a travel declaration form at suckhoe.dancuquocgia.gov.vn. Created by the Ministry of Public ...
Gia Minh
Trains to arrive next month for trial run of Laos-China railway
The Laos-China railway project will bring in locomotives, electric multiple unit (EMU) trains and other equipment to conduct the first trial run of the railway in October. The plan was presented at the 10th Laos-China Railway Project Steering Committee Meeting held in Vientiane on Wednesday, attended ...
Phomphong Laoin
Pandemic wears out Mekong Delta farm cooperatives
Plummeting sales due to Covid-19 and a pileup of inventories mean agricultural cooperatives in Vinh Long and Soc Trang provinces are at the end of their rope. Nguyen Ngoc Bao, chairman of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, said farming cooperatives are plagued by broken supply chains, ballooning ...
Thi Ha, Anh Minh
Covid blame game spreads like a virus in Thailand
When Thai Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul met with Pfizer company representatives in Bangkok in late 2020, the businessman-cum-politician declined to place a Covid-19 vaccine order because in his words the shot was not yet proven effective on “yellow-skinned people”, according to government sources familiar ...
SHAWN W. CRISPIN
Interview: How will plans to protect 30% of Earth work for Southeast Asia?
In May, Campaign for Nature announced that Southeast Asian nations were showing growing support for the goal of protecting 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030. Dr Zakri Abdul Hamid is ambassador for the campaign, which is a partnership between the Wyss Campaign for ...
Tyler Roney
USAID redirects funding in Cambodia as future of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary hangs in the balance
More than a month has passed since the Cambodia branch of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced it would be ending its assistance to Cambodian government entities through the USAID Greening Prey Lang project and the future of the 431,683-hectare wildlife sanctuary ...
Gerald Flynn
Towards Effective Advocacy in Mekong Region with Data Literacy
The Open Development Initiative (ODI) first began working with our constituents on data literacy in 2019, with a 3-month data literacy programme for journalists in Myanmar. Since then we have localized our Data Literacy Curriculum, adapted from the World Bank Certificate Program, to meet the ...
Open Development Initiative (ODI)
