News
Cambodia's budget figures released
Cambodia’s Council of Ministers on 21 October approved its 2016 budget, which will increase 16.1 per cent from last year to $4.3 billion, with education set to get another significant injection of funds and the Labour Ministry also receiving a sizeable boost. The draft budget, which now must ...
Vietnam, Cambodia set to join regional anti-drug operation
Vietnam and Cambodia have indicated they plan to join the “Safe Mekong” anti-drug operation which aims to stem the flow of illegal narcotics in the lower Mekong region, a senior official in the field has stated. Chairman of the Lao National Commission for Drug Control and ...
Xayaboury province bans further investment in banana farms
Xayaboury province will impose restrictions on banana farms following reports which suggested that farms in several provinces had used harmful chemicals which leaked into the soil and threatened local livelihoods. Governor of the northwestern province, Mr Phongsavanh Sitthavong, recently informed the media that Xayaboury would allow ...
Mekong dams will wipe out fisheries, study says
Preliminary findings from a soon-to-be released report have reinforced dismal projections for the future of Cambodia’s fisheries if 11 planned mainstream hydropower dams are built on the Mekong River. Presented on 21 October at the Greater Mekong Forum on Water, Food and Energy in Phnom Penh, the ...
ASEAN to prioritize eradication of illegal arms trade
The illicit trade of arms is the main trigger of transnational crimes that must be addressed, according to Ministry of Interior of Senior Official Meetings on Transnational Crimes (SOMTC) leader of the Kingdom of Cambodia HE Lapresse Sieng. Keep reading ...
China aims to develop border area with Laos
China has announced that it will invest US$31.4 billion in the Mengla economic zone in Yunnan province of the country, which shares a border with Lunag Namtha and Phongsaly provinces in northern Laos. The investment will cover more than 240 projects in such fields as transportation, ...
Food and Drug Administration to test drinking water, cooking oil
The Myanmar Food and Drug Administration is taking action against peddlers of dirty “purified” water and fake peanut oil. Officials said for the safety of the public the FDA will be testing products consumed daily, going ward by ward to take samples. “First, we will take ...
Advanced voting prompts confusion
Election day is 8 November for most of Myanmar’s 32 million eligible voters, but advance voting – an extremely contentious issue in the 2010 polls – has already begun in some parts of the country. All states and regions have received their ballot papers, each carrying ...
The strongest El Nino in decades is going to mess with everything
It has choked Singapore with smoke, triggered Pacific typhoons and left Vietnamese coffee growers staring nervously at dwindling reservoirs. In Africa, cocoa farmers are blaming it for bad harvests, and in the Americas, it has Argentines bracing for lower milk production and Californians believing that ...
Malnutrition feared in Myanmar's hard-hit flood zones
Widespread malnutrition and food shortages are feared in the aftermath of devastating monsoon floods that wiped out large tracts of the agriculture and livestock industries, according to a new survey report. An assessment team from the United Nations, the World Food Programme and other international aid ...