News

Laos has extended its lockdown COVID-19 prevention measures across the country for a further 15 days as the community spread of COVID-19 in the capital continues. Given the situation in neighboring countries and community spread in Lao capital Vientiane, the lockdown order would be extended until ...

The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu plans to expand large-scale production and the use of advanced techniques to improve agricultural yield and quality and raise farmers’ incomes from now to 2025. The provincial People’s Committee targets production of 1.17 million tonnes of paddy, including 190,240 tonnes of organic paddy, a year by 2025.  It plans to expand large-scale ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has recorded river levels increasing by 0.65m between Stung Treng and Prey Veng’s Neak Loeung over the last seven days and forecast an additional rise this week of 0.60m due to torrential rain. Lower Mekong River Basin (LMB) water levels have ...

Thailand’s planned reopening of the resort island Phuket next month to vaccinated visitors, bypassing quarantine requirements, has met a lukewarm response, with hotel bookings indicating expected occupancy of less than 20% so far. The “Phuket Sandbox” initiative from July 1 will allow free movement on the ...

Vietnam has justifiably been praised as one of the world’s best performers during the Covid-19 pandemic. By the end of 2020, the country of 96 million people had recorded fewer than 1,400 cases, less than two dozen deaths and was one of the few Asian ...

Concern for the future of Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi is mounting after her appearance in a purpose-built courtroom in the country’s capital Naypyidaw at the start of what is expected to be a seven-week trial. Since the coup on February 1, little has been seen of ...

The Greater Mekong, a transnational region in Southeast Asia, spans six countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The region is home to more than 325 million people and, while it has survived the trauma of wars, it now faces mounting environmental threats from ...

The facility will have power generation capacity of 600 megawatts, making it one of the largest onshore wind farms in Southeast Asia, reported Nikkei Asia. It is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. A Mitsubishi subsidiary will take a 20% stake in a joint ...

Vietnam introduced national guidelines on social media behaviour on Friday which encourage people to post positive content about the Southeast Asian country and require state employees to report “conflicting information” to their superiors. The code prohibits posts which violate the law and “affect the interests of ...

The level of the Mekong river is rising steadily in this northeastern province, between 30 centimetres and one metre per day, following heavy rain during the past week. On Wednesday morning, the river was 6m deep and about 6m below the spill-over point. After an inspection on ...