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ASEAN was established in 1967 to advance regional cooperation, particularly economic, security and social. Its member countries have a combined population of 650 million and GDP of more than $2.5 trillion. Its immense population, comparative advantages and geographical location have led to the bloc being one of ...

With Southeast Asia facing a funding deficit to meet its burgeoning energy and infrastructure needs, the region needs stronger coordination, skills and transparency in elevating sustainable projects to investors, according to the findings of a report by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA). The findings ...

There are approximately 124 million people around the world who suffer from acute hunger. According to the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2018 report, without intervention, 50 countries will fail to achieve the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger by 2030. On ...

Leaders from 16 Asia-Pacific nations including Japan, China and India have effectively given up on achieving the goal of finalising their free trade deal by the end of this year, according to a joint statement issued on Monday. In the statement released after their summit, the ...

Asean civil society groups on Saturday criticised the deterioration of human rights in Asean as well as the bloc’s principle of non-interference, especially over the Rohingya crisis, which will reportedly receive no mention in the East Asia Summit statement. Phil Robertson, the Asia Deputy Director of ...

Recently, 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Britain. While the victims were initially identified as Chinese, it has since been found that at least 20 were, in fact, Vietnamese, and almost all from the same – considered poor – province of ...

Thailand, Chair of ASEAN in 2019, successfully gained the agreement of all 10 member states for “The Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in the ASEAN Region” at the 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok. The aim of the joint declaration is to address the problem ...

Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are gathering for their 35th summit in Bangkok this week to chart a course for the region’s economic future. As we’ve argued before, Southeast Asia is re-emerging as a theater for major powers to exert geopolitical ...

Universal electricity access is a key pillar of ASEAN’s development goals. The regional bloc has committed to providing every citizen with an electricity supply by the early 2030s. To achieve this end, the region will need to increase its power capabilities by some 60% by ...

Food has an environmental impact. A 2018 study by J. Poore and T. Nemecek titled ‘Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers,’ published by the University of Oxford revealed that food production is responsible for 26 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing ...