News
US surpasses Laos to become Vietnam’s biggest overseas investment destination
The U.S. has overtaken Laos to become the most attractive place for Vietnamese foreign investment in the first nine months of this year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment. The North American country attracted $101.4 million out of ...
FIFA ethics committee bans executives from Nepal, Laos
The ethics committee at world soccer body FIFA has banned two officials from Nepal and Laos for taking cash during elections, it said on 16 November. Keep reading ...
Elephant Caravan in Laos sparks conservation debate
For centuries Laos has been known as the Land of a Million Elephants. Now there are fewer than 900 of the iconic creatures – and less than half of those are wild. If the population continues to decline at the current rate, elephants will be ...
President to parties: Stability during transition is responsibility of all
As if to reflect the sea change that has overtaken the country’s politics in the past week, representatives of the National League for Democracy – still officially the opposition party – were seated at the head of the table at a meeting with President U Thein ...
Rainsy vows to return amid threats of arrest
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy is scheduled to return to Phnom Penh on 16 November where he could face arrest and a two-year prison sentence over a defamation case dating back to 2008, his party said on 15 November. Eng Chhay Eang, a spokesman of the opposition Cambodia ...
Rural latrine access on the rise, government finds
The Ministry of Rural Development on 13 November announced that more than half of Cambodians now have access to improved sanitation such as latrines. According to the ministry’s statement, 47 per cent of Cambodians now lack access to improved sanitation, compared to 89 per cent in 1990. The ...
Sam Rainsy removed from National Assembly
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who faces arrest and jail upon his return from abroad tonight, was removed as a member of the National Assembly on 16 November, with a spokesman for the parliament citing the warrant released for his arrest last week as justification. The Assembly’s ...
Mekong nations launch Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Framework
The Mekong River has always been an important trade route between Western China and Southeast Asia flowing through six different countries. The six foreign ministers met for the first time to frame a cooperation mechanism, agreeing to launch significant projects to enhance water resources, public health, ...
Better Rice initiative to help Mekong farmers
About 3,000 farmers from three Mekong Delta provinces will benefit from a project called Better Rice Initiative Asia that has been launched in Can Tho City. Carried out as part of the Integrated Coastal Management Programme, the project aims to promote private-public partnerships along the rice ...
China, Laos to build $6.3 bln railway project by 2020
China aims to complete laying a 418-kilometre (260-mile) railway from a border town to Laos by 2020, the official China Economic Herald reported, as the economic giant seeks a new route into the emerging markets of Southeast Asia. The two countries agreed on 13 November to jointly ...