News

Water levels lowered by seven dams along a stretch of the Nam Ou River in Laos are blocking boat travel in a scenic area popular with tourists, impacting tour and passenger boat operators and other local businesses, Lao sources say. Travel by water between Nong Khiaw ...

The Human Development Report ranks countries based on the Human Development Index (HDI) which measures average achievement on three basic aspects of human development, life expectancy, education, and per capita income. Between 1990 and 2019, the Lao PDR’s HDI value increased from 0.405 to 0.613, an ...

The Lao government’s high-risk plan to install a massive dam on the Mekong River, perilously close to the renowned UNESCO World Heritage site of Luang Prabang, shows a disregard for its legal obligations to protect the renowned site, according to conservation experts. Minja Yang, the former ...

More Lao fishermen have been arrested in southern Thailand for illegally entering the country as they tried to return home from Malaysia, where they had been working in the fishing industry for years, the fishermen and local officials said. Like an earlier group arrested on Dec. ...

Unemployment among people with disabilities continues to be an unresolved issue, especially in remote areas, according to a report from the Lao Statistics Bureau. The report noted that Laos has a high rate of unemployment among people with disabilities compared to the overall population. Unemployment among this ...

A four-year project on the prevention and elimination of violence against women was launched on Thursday, which was International Human Rights Day. The project aims to strengthen national capacity for the effective, systematic and accountable prevention of, and response to, violence against women in Laos. The Lao ...

Laos is pushing ahead with four dams across the mainstream of the Mekong River, despite an escalating chorus of objections and crippling debt to Chinese state banks which resulted in the loss of control over its electricity grid to China. For almost two decades scientists and ...

National utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) has signed three memoranda to purchase power from Laotian companies amid expected energy shortages. EVN will buy power from two hydropower plants and one coal-fired power plant in neighboring country Laos starting 2024, according to the memorandums of understanding signed Sunday. The ...

The Natural Resources and Environment Sector Working Group (NRESWG) plans to accelerate implementation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s priority projects affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The group also aims to ensure the alignment of ongoing and future activities through the NRESWG platform, as ...

Fifty-eight illegal job-seekers from Laos were caught on the banks of the Mekong River in Khong Chiam district as they were preparing to travel to Bangkok yesterday. Capt Nathawat Wichakul, commander of Ubon Ratchathani’s Mekong Riverine Unit (MRU), said a combined security force intercepted a white ...