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Thailand’s energy policymakers have expressed concern that the low oil price is encouraging motorists to be careless with energy consumption.  The government is looking at raising the tax on fuel to increase its fund for campaigning for alternative fuels, said Areepong Bhoocha-oom, the Energy Ministry’s permanent-secretary.  Keep ...

The Thai government has been trying to tell farmers in the Central Plains for months that they should shift from planting rice to other crops that need less water because of the severe water shortage this season. Keep reading ...

Japanese government will lend 95 billion yen (US$811.53 million) in official development loans (ODA) for three transport infrastructure projects and one climate change response plan in Vietnam, the government website has reported.   The loans, whose agreements were signed in Hanoi on 15 January, were part of ...

Vietnam’s housing market is expected to enjoy another good year after record sales in 2015 aided by improved economic conditions and infrastructure and lower interest rates.   According to the industry’s estimates, apartment sales in Hanoi hit around 28,300 units in 2015, a 70 percent rise from ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a new international development bank seen as a rival to the U.S.-led World Bank at a lavish ceremony on 17 January, as Beijing seeks to change the unwritten rules of global development finance. Despite opposition from Washington, U.S. allies including Australia, ...

The Defence Ministry will invest in high-technology devices to protect state agencies’ websites from being hacked again, says Gen Prawit Wongsuwan.   Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Prawit said on 14 January the government is looking at various high-tech options to protect the websites from hackers ...

The Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS) has appointed a former manager of Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) as its new chief. Two-thirds of the nine-member ThaiPBS policy committee voted Krissada Raungarreerat in as the new director-general of Thailand’s first public broadcasting service. The panel had ...

Legal cases will be opened against 175 candidates in the November 2015 general election for failing to submit their campaign expenses on time, according to the Union Election Commission. “The election tribunal will start hearing those cases on 21 January in Nay Pyi Taw,” said U ...

Organisers of makeshift camps for villagers fleeing a military offensive in remote areas of Rakhine State are appealing to the international community for aid. More than 300 civilians, all of whom are said to be ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, have fled to the safety of monasteries following ...

Greater efforts at a national level are needed to create a new wave of investments in Vietnam, Vuong Dinh Hue, head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, said. Speaking during a recent interview with Vietnam News Agency, Hue said the country’s advancing legal framework and ...