News

Members of Wisconsin’s Hmong community are speaking out after reports that the Trump administration is seeking authority to deport thousands of Hmong residents to Laos. A State Department spokesperson on Monday confirmed to Wisconsin Public Radio that the administration is calling on Laos to accept deported ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) held a forum last week in Laos to discuss with other Mekong nations before going ahead with construction of a Luang Prabang hydropower project on Mekong River. The Lao government presented detail of the Luang Prabang hydropower project in the ninth ...

A pipeline stretching from central to north-east Thailand promises to “promote Thailand as an energy hub in the region” and “increase energy security”, according to the Ministry of Energy. Construction began in mid-2019, despite local communities objecting that the largely Chinese-financed project could worsen flooding ...

In a momentous win for the Mekong River, this week the Thai Cabinet formally called for cancellation of the Lancang-Mekong Navigation Channel Improvement Project, popularly known as the Mekong “rapids-blasting” project.The cabinet decision is the culmination of decades of campaigning by Thai Mekong communities and ...

Rights groups and researchers have welcomed Thailand’s decision to cancel a Beijing-backed project to dredge and blow open a shallow and rocky stretch of the Mekong River along the Thai-Lao border. The move is a rare victory for groups and communities fighting to save Southeast Asia’s ...

On a wide bank of the Mekong River, yellow markers and visits by surveyors show preparations underway to build Laos’ third and largest dam on Southeast Asia’s most vital waterway. About an hour downstream, in the laid-back tourist centre of Luang Prabang, the dam’s developers heard ...

 Lao government officials completed a three-week training course on advanced Geographic Information Systems, which was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to enable them to undertake climate mapping and zoning. The training course, funded by the Global Environment Facility, covered spatial analysis, geo-databases, network ...

Twelve special economic zones (SEZs) established across the country have attracted investment of almost US$5.7 billion and created thousands of jobs for local people, a report this week showed. The zones’ developers have invested US$4.28 billion, individual companies invested US$1.36 billion, and the Lao government has ...

Xayaboury province is becoming a major transit hub for international tourists after the government upgraded a border crossing with Thailand to inter-national level, according to a senior provincial official.  “We are becoming a new transit hub for international tourists coming to Laos,” the province’s Deputy Governor, ...

The Lao Ministry of Finance and the World Bank signed a financing agreement of 50 million U.S. dollars on Tuesday, extending support to the ongoing Lao People’s Democratic Republic Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management Project and Lao Road Sector Project II. Bounchom Ubonpaseuth, Lao Deputy Minister ...