News
Prohibited rosewood seized en route to China

Police in Oudomxay province last week seized some 47 rosewood timbers and 25 partially-processed rosewoods weighing 2,534 kilogrammes in total loaded inside the container-like truck, which carried a Vientiane number plate reportedly being transported from Vientiane en route to China, a provincial police official said on ...
Technology startups: high failure rate worries some investors

More than 60 percent of startups fail and 70 percent fail in the first year of operation. Rapid-fire good news has come to the Vietnamese technology startup community. US President Obama, during his visit to Vietnam in late May, announced that 500 Startups, the investment fund ...
Thailand and Burma restart border demarcation talks

Thailand and Burma have agreed to renew negotiations over disputed border demarcations, which had stalled under Burma’s previous government. The agreement was reached during State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent visit to Thailand, according to Burma’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Observers say that Thailand wants to ...
NGO releases ELC figures to help with ‘shortcomings’

The NGO Forum on 28 June released an extensive and updated accounting of economic land concessions in Cambodia, suggesting that in a 20-year period, 267 ELCs totalling 1,532,783 hectares were granted. The data collection, from 1995 to the end of 2015, was conducted by the Research Advocacy ...
EU funds asylum-seeking scheme in Thailand
The UN Refugee Agency has received 300,000 euros from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department to support the refugee status determination process for asylum-seekers in Thailand. There are currently more than 2,000 refugees and more than 6,000 asylum-seekers from nearly 50 countries living ...
Officials bid to increase South Korean investment
A delegation of Cambodian investment officials and prominent private sector businessmen held a seminar in Seoul, South Korea, on 29 June in an effort to drum up more Korean investment in Cambodia’s growing agro-industrial sector. The Cambodian delegates briefed more than 80 Korean investors in attendance on ...
Vietnam stock exchange to be based in HCM city

“The Vietnam Stock Exchange to be based in HCM City is within the Government’s goal of quickly turning HCM City into the country’s largest financial center,” Tran Dac Sinh, Chairman of the Management Board of the HCM City Stock Exchange, told business news site Bizlive. As ...
Observers urge Govt to create new export markets, boost trade volume

A recent World Bank report says that trade growth in Myanmar could reduce poverty and boost prosperity, but local observers say in order for that to happen the government must implement economic policies that increase export markets. The Myanmar Diagnostic Trade Integration Study released last week by the ...
Worker traffic accidents down in ’16

The number of traffic accidents involving workers is down 28 per cent in the first six months of 2016 compared to the same period last year, Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour’s National Social Security Fund reported on 28 June. Accidents for 2016 through June totalled 2,259, with 2,849 ...
Garment industry moves to weather possible Brexit influence

Vietnam’s garment-textile industry has already taking possible Brexit influence into accounts while conjuring up measures to weather its possible negative impacts. Vietnam’s garment exports to the EU account for approximately 20 percent of the total volume with the UK contributing around 4 percent. Vu Duc Giang, Chairman ...