News
The Asia Development Bank Extends a $250 million loan to Cambodia
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on July 8 approved a $250 million loan to help the Cambodian government rebuild the country’s economy that has been severely affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. According to the ADB’s press release, this loan will go toward strengthening ...
Timber smuggling continues in Sagaing despite ban, virus
The number of illegal logs seized in the first nine months of the fiscal year shows that timber smuggling remains rampant in Sagaing Region despite the threat of COVID-19, the head of the regional Forest Department said. U Aung Tun Win, director of the department, said ...
Khin Su Wai
Japan to give Mekong countries $115 mln for Covid-19 fight, sustainable development
Vietnam and four other countries in the Mekong region will receive Japanese aid worth $115.3 million to combat Covid-19 and work for sustainable development. Japan announced the decision at the 13th Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held online on Thursday and co-chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister ...
Viet Anh
Lao Doctors, Nurses Demand Overtime Pay Owed For Work Containing COVID
Over 800 health-care workers in southern provinces of Laos are calling on authorities to pay them for extra hours worked this year in hospitals and quarantine centers while trying to control the spread of coronavirus, according to sources in the one-party communist state. However, official sources ...
RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Manichanh Phimphachanh. Written in English by Richard Finney
NA session ends with endorsement of new govt policy framework
The National Assembly (NA) has ended its mid-year session after endorsing four resolutions that create a legal framework under which the government and relevant authorities will carry out their duties over the next six months. Assembly President Mrs Pany Yathotou on Thursday officially closed the 9th ...
Times Reporters
ASEAN Underground Abortion
Abortion is an extremely taboo topic in some parts of conservative Southeast Asia. ASEAN member states such as the Philippines and Lao do not permit abortion. Whereas Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand only allow abortion if a medical practitioner deems that continuing the pregnancy poses a danger ...
Athira Nortajuddin
Cambodia’s Food Crisis In A Pandemic
The coronavirus crisis has severely affected livelihoods, local industries and the economy in general. It has also disrupted world trade, supply chains and also the production of food and agricultural products and commodities. According to Samarendu Mohanty, Asia Regional Director at the International Potato Center, ...
Athira Nortajuddin
Mekong Delta province to help farmers with 1.7 million USD for drought, saltwater
The People’s Committee of the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh has decided to provide relief worth more than 40 billion VND (1.7 million USD) to more than 28,000 farming households to revive agriculture, which was severely affected by drought and saltwater intrusion in the 2019 – ...
VNA
Major Impact from COVID-19 to Thailand’s Economy, Vulnerable Households, Firms: Report
Thailand’s economy is expected to be impacted severely by the COVID-19 pandemic, shrinking by at least 5 percent in 2020 and taking more than two years to return to pre-COVID-19 GDP output levels, according to the World Bank’s latest Thailand Economic Monitor, released today. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
World Bank Thailand
Thai farmers are trying a new, climate-friendly way to grow rice
A new agricultural program in central Thailand is working with farmers to change the way they grow rice, in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from rice paddies while saving water, time and money. The program, backed by the Thai government and German development agency ...
Skylar Lindsay