News

Laos has continued to transport logs from its forests to Vietnam, despite a government ban on timber exports that took effect in August and a leaked report by an international environmental group two months ago, revealing huge increases in illegal logging with the implication of ...

The Vietnamese government has published a list of 17 business sectors that are open to foreign investors, with some conditions, in a bid to improve the investment environment following this year’s record inflow of foreign capital.   Until now, Vietnam – often criticized for a lack of ...

A Vietnamese high-ranking delegation led by Minister of Defence General Phung Quang Thanh is on a friendship visit to Laos from 25-26 December at the invitation of Lao Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Sengnouane Xayalath. During its stay, the Vietnamese delegation is set to have talks ...

Vietnam has suspended the administration of an infant vaccine nationwide after hundreds of parents, trying to secure shots for their children, caused a chaotic scene in front of a medical center in Hanoi.   Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Health Department at the health ministry, has ...

A group of seven Vietnamese and Cambodian girls were freed during a raid on a brothel in Battambang province on 23 December in which three suspected brokers were arrested, according to anti-human trafficking police. Officers entered the nameless “massage parlor” in Kamrieng district’s Boeng Raing commune at ...

Vietnam’s annual credit growth this year is expected to quicken to 18 percent, beating a previous government target of 17 percent, the State Bank of Vietnam said on 24 December. Keep reading ...

The manager of a highway project linking Hanoi with Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, has estimated the cost for the 707-kilometer route at US$4.52 billion.    In its latest plan submitted to the transport ministry, the project’s manager Unit 85 said the six-lane highway will go through ...

Senior officials at Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior have concluded a preliminary investigation into allegations that Cambodians living along the border with Vietnam have been illegally leasing land to Vietnamese farmers. About 1,000 families owning almost 7,000 hectares of land in five provinces have rented the territory out ...

Vietnam’s dong fell to the limit of its current trading band for the first time, reflecting further pressure to weaken after three devaluations already this year.   The currency fell as much as 0.07 percent to 22,547 per dollar in Hanoi, diverging from the State Bank of ...

A market of industrial chemicals in Ho Chi Minh City is having a new product on sale. And it has quickly become a bestseller.    The black liquid, coming in big plastic cans, works magic. Just add a few drops into water and you can turn it ...