News
Contractors association bands together with YCDC grievances

Over 500 of Yangon’s licensed building contractors met last week to debate forming an industry association, which will have a long list of policy complaints to take to Yangon City Development Committee. The city’s contractors are banding together partly in anticipation of new YCDC regulations, and ...
Oil, gas production not expected before 2018
Cambodia’s oil and gas reserves will not see any production until at least 2018, according to a report by London-based BMI. “A deferral of development at Kris Energy’s Block A, which is the most progressive development in the country, prompted us to remove our forecast of ...
Myanmar forest-cutting continues despite government efforts
The hills of northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region were so legendarily thick with forests that in the days of kings, condemned criminals were ordered into the woods as a death sentence. Today illegal logging has left vast swaths of bare patches, with only a handful of old-growth ...
India gives Vietnam $680 million for defence spending
India said on September 3 it is giving Vietnam US$500 million in credit to boost defence ties, the latest security deal between the two nations seeking to counter Beijing’s muscle-flexing in the South China Sea. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement during a visit ...
Light railway raised yet again at JICA meet
Plans for a light railway system in Phnom Penh were discussed at a meeting between Public Works and Transportation Minister Sun Chanthol and Japanese International Cooperation Agency regional director-general Yasushi Tanaka on September 2. Chanthol confirmed the meeting on September 4 but declined to comment further ...
ASEAN and China to focus on RCEP
ASEAN and China intend to cooperate in production capacity as well support the finalisation this year of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn said last week that a statement on the cooperation will be issued at the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, which takes place ...
Hydropower commission probes Myitsone contract
The commission to scrutinise hydropower projects along the Ayeyarwady River has met with the Ministry of Electric Power and Energy to learn more about the contractual agreement with a Chinese state-owned firm underpinning the suspended Myitsone hydropower project in Kachin State. The commission held its second ...
Survey: EU businesses planning to expand in ASEAN

Majority of European businesses are planning to expand their investment and operations in ASEAN, including the Philippines, as the region grows in global importance and increasing profits, but they also said that trade barriers in the region hamper their ability to reach maximum economic potential, ...
Banks covering their assets

Cambodian financial institutions surveyed yesterday said they were in compliance with the central bank’s revised liquidity coverage ratio requirements as the deadline passed to increase their cash and highly liquid assets to weather any internal or external shocks. The National Bank of Cambodia announced an incremental ...
The pivot toward closer India-Myanmar ties

India and Myanmar have gone to great lengths to paint President U Htin Kyaw’s recent four-day visit as a historic cementing of bilateral ties. The neighbouring countries’ relations, long overshadowed by China’s more aggressive overtures, have forged ahead under the National League for Democracy-led administration. U ...