News
In ASEAN’s fastest-growing market, SME development barred by obstacles
Local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in ASEAN’s fastest-growing market are unable to develop and grow because they are bogged down by a slew of bureaucratic and administrative difficulties, business leaders and politicians said.Read more ...
Myanmar opts for domestic power generation despite neighbours’ offers
Plans are underway to generate electricity from local power plants even though some neighboring countries – China, Thailand, Laos and India – have offered to sell their electricity to Myanmar, Deputy Permanent Secretary U Myint Soe of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE) told ...
Mekong Delta fights for survival amidst climate change and unbridled development
At a glance, Green Farm looks like any other shrimp farm. The 35-hectare facility is divided up into 46 ponds, between 1 and 1.5 metres deep, aerated by turbines that run around the clock. The shrimps are separated by species and size and some of ...
HydroCalculator: new, free, online tool helps citizens assess dams
Mega-dam construction is booming around the world, with promoters hyping hydropower as a green, renewable source of energy and a means of curbing climate change. But as these dams are built in the Amazon, Mekong and elsewhere, they’re doing great environmental and social damage and ...
Fast trains to nowhere in Southeast Asia
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Thailand on a July 24 visit to strengthen “cooperation in the construction of the China-Thai railway,” calling the kingdom “a very important partner” in China’s One Belt One Road initiative. Yi did not make clear, at least in his ...
Tens of thousands protest against aid agencies in Myanmar’s west
Buddhist monks and residents demonstrated in 15 of 17 townships in Rakhine State on Sunday to demand a resolution to the security issues in the area and to keep out foreign aid agencies. Buddhist monks hold placards during a protest against the United Nations (UN), ...
Hydropower production possible in Rakhine: officials
A team of officials has studied several rivers in Rakhine State and concluded that some are suitable for hydropower production, sources say. The officials inspected and measured headwater of the Nanyar River in Yathedaung Township on August 12. Yathedaung MP Than Naing, who accompanied the ...
‘Indigenous peoples are the best guardians of world's biodiversity’
Today is the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, numbering an estimated 370 million in 90 countries and speaking roughly 7,000 languages. To mark it, the Guardian interviews Kankanaey Igorot woman Victoria Tauli-Corpuz about the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of ...
Hong Kong cleans up 93 tonnes of palm oil, shuts 13 beaches after huge spill
Hong Kong stepped up efforts on Wednesday to clean up a massive palm oil spill, with authorities scooping up more than 90 tonnes of foul-smelling, styrofoam-like clumps in one of the worst environmental disasters to blight the territory’s waters. Dead fish, shells, rocks, plastic bottles ...
China helps launch $13bn rail project in Malaysia
China and Malaysia broke ground on Wednesday on a $13 billion rail project linking peninsular Malaysia’s east and west, the largest such project in the country and a major part of Beijing’s Belt and Road infrastructure push. Keep reading ...