Economy and industry

The Zoological Park Organisation of Thailand (ZPO) board on Tuesday set up a panel to investigate the illegal wildlife trade across zoos nationwide in the wake of the disappearance of rare albino barking deer at Songkhla Zoo. Chavalit Chookajorn, the former permanent secretary of the Ministry ...

A surge in fake news around Southeast Asia, particularly bogus COVID-19 information, has prompted leaders to explore a regional crackdown after a suggestion from a Vietnamese security official. Police agencies in the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries – which represent a total population ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is assisting the government of Thailand in designing, issuing and monitoring innovative capital market initiatives as part of the country’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in a manner aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ADB’s ...

The Mekong River in Southeast Asia flows for 4,350 kilometers from China to Vietnam through Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. China’s construction of large hydropower dams to feed the country’s growing energy needs is causing problems downriver, including dire impacts on the waters and fertile ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) released new guidelines yesterday assessing the risks of hydropower development through an assessment of five major themes. This is the third volume of Hydropower Mitigation Guidelines, and the themes include river hydrology and downstream flows, geomorphology and sediments, water quality, fisheries ...

“Water rises so fast and drops so fast because the water doesn’t flow naturally. It has huge impacts on us. It’s hard to catch any fish, and the fish cannot lay eggs,” says Prayoon Saen-ae, 62, head of a local fishermen group in Chiang Khan ...

A telecom firm in the Philippines recently hired the services of a United States-based cybersecurity firm to shore up its defenses against the potential threats of spying by China. It became the latest in a string of Southeast Asian corporations to have engaged a cybersecurity firm to strengthen ...

In early September, the Lao government signed a deal to give majority control of its electric grid over to a Chinese state-owned company amid mounting public debt as Beijing continues to expand its role in the country. State-owned China Southern Power Grid Company signed a deal with the ...

The year 2020 marks a major turning point in the energy industry of Vietnam, with clean energy strengthening its solid position and establishing itself as a profitable sector with significant potential for development, while coal-fired thermal power no longer holding the position as a favoured energy source in the ...

Data released by the Myanmar Commerce Ministry on Monday showed that the country saw more than USD3.61 billion from agricultural exports in more than 11 months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2019-2020. The agricultural exports of the current fiscal year expanded USD500 million in comparison ...