Economy and industry

The coming year is expected to be the year of cybersecurity for Thailand with the likely introduction of key digital laws, especially the Cybersecurity Act, to take effect in 2019. Paiboon Amonpinyokeat, of the National Cyber Security preparation committee and a cyber law expert, said that ...

 Sak Siam, 69, chief of Chnok Tru, a village in central Cambodia, is worried. The floating village of about 1,700 households is located on a tributary of the Mekong River. “The villagers will be unable to survive if the fish catch decreases further,” he said. Hydroelectric ...

Ahead of the inaugural Mekong-Republic of Korea Summit and ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit next year, the two sides can benefit together by tackling the development challenges of the future, according to a group of experts at the sixth Mekong-ROK Business Forum on Dec. 13 in Seoul.  “Korea ...

Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) could play a bigger role in the protection and development of the Lancang-Mekong river, Cambodian experts and officials said in recent interviews with Xinhua. Te Navuth, secretary general of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee (CNMC), said that for Cambodia, the main concerns over ...

Vietnam’s growth soared to more than 7 per cent this year, its highest in a decade, helped by a surge in its manufacturing sector. The country has long been one of Asia’s fastest growing economies – GDP growth topped 5 per cent over the past ...

From sea to source, the Mekong River stretches nearly 5,000 km through six countries. More than 60 million people depend on its waters for survival, and it is second only to the Amazon in its biodiversity. Photographers Gareth Bright and Luke Forsyth spent eighteen months travelling ...

Farmers in Thailand are welcoming a new law allowing cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes Wednesday, in an Asian first that promises an economic bonanza but also fears that foreign companies could reap the rewards. Thailand’s National Assembly passed a bill Tuesday legalizing the use ...

Experts are concerned that the Mekong dolphin is unlikely to survive Cambodia’s modernisation as a new dam is planned.  It says, “building dams destroy habitats” and lists threats to dolphins, including pollutions and gillnets. It looks like an insect-eaten papyrus. The Irrawaddy dolphin is a critically endangered ...

The annual culture and arts festival for countries along the Lancang-Mekong River opened Wednesday in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. More than 260 artists from countries including China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand attended the opening ceremony of the event, which is held in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous ...

The Mekong River, flowing from the Tibetan Plateau through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea, is a hotbed of ecological diversity. The roughly 60 million people who live in the region, many in poverty, depend on the river and its ...