Economy and industry

Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen their cooperation in promoting their countries as a single tourism destination. The countries’ leaders agreed on their tourism partnership during the “Four Countries, One Destination” conference held in Yangon, Myanmar, on July 31 under the ...

China plans to increase its rice import quota from Cambodia next year as the country braces for possible cutbacks by the European Union to limit milled rice imports from least developed countries. Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak said on August 2 that his Chinese counterpart Gao Hucheng agreed ...

FPT Corporation has been selected by Myanmar Payment Union as the prime investor to implement a national financial switching system, the company said on 1 August. The entire financial switching system will be funded and implemented by FPT in a year. Currently, over 95 percent of transactions ...

The Metropolitan Electricity Authority says it will continue putting power lines underground, expecting to bury another 127 kilometres by 2020. The agency plans several other power line projects in addition to those already initiated, said MEA governor Somchai Roadrungwasinkul. The first phase of the plan, ...

Thai retail giant Central Group has declared around US$89.6 million in tax on its acquisition of Vietnam’s biggest foreign-owned supermarket chain Big C, local media reported. Big C Vietnam, which declared the tax on behalf of its new owner, has paid $17.03 million of the amount, ...

Foreign direct investment in Thailand in the first half of the year fell by more than 90% in value to the lowest mark in over a decade at US$347 million, reports the Bank of Thailand. The report said FDI declined from $4.2 billion in the same ...

The largest environmental story to break this month has been The New York Times‘ exposé of the Mississippi-based Kemper Project’s mismanagement, delays, inflated costs, and alleged fraud, making a mockery of the NCPO’s plans to convert Thailand from natural gas to ‘clean coal’. The Thailand Power ...

Situated in Laos’ Luang Namtha province, Boten is China’s gateway to Southeast Asia and will be a critical link in both the North-South and East-West economic corridors. In terms of the North-South corridor, it is the transit point for the Kunming-Bangkok Expressway, which passes across ...

Keith Richburg is the director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong. He spent more than two decades as a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post covering Africa, Europe, China and Southeast Asia, making his first visit to Cambodia ...

Vietnam held a ceremony was held in the northern border province of Lao Cai on July 30, aiming to raise public awareness of the importance of human trafficking prevention and control. Speaking at the event, President of the Vietnamese Women’s Union Nguyen Thi Thu Ha said ...