Economy and industry

With the slowdown in domestic auto sales ebbing and strong exports, Thai automobile production is expected to reach 2 million units next year, the Federation of Thai Industries projects. Surapong Paisitpatanapong, a spokesman for the FTI’s automotive industry club, said the production in 2016 likely will grow ...

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered key ministers to go to China for negotiations on the delayed Thai-China railway project after China set a high interest rate on loans to finance it. The cost of the project is now estimated to reach around 500 billion baht. Keep reading ...

Government authorities in cash-strapped Laos are withholding funds urgently needed to repair flood-damaged roads in the country’s provinces, saying that available resources must be spent on improvements in the capital Vientiane ahead of regional summit meetings next year. Provincial public works and transport departments may also ...

Nestle, the world’s largest food company, has acknowledged that it is almost certain that seafood bought from Thailand by itself and other large Western firms is produced by what are effectively modern-day slaves, many of them Cambodian. In a report, released by Nestlé on 23 November, ...

While unemployment rates are low among Cambodian youths, their jobs are largely poorly paid and informal, providing them with just enough money to survive on, according to a recent report. The report, released on Sunday by youth NGO the Youth Resource Development Program and the Ministry ...

The Japanese government has provided a grant for the ‘Project for Reconstruction of the Bridges on National Road No 9 in Laos,’ valued at 70 million Japanese Yen (over 4.6 billion kip). The signing ceremony was held on 24 November at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in ...

The “ASEAN journalists to cover the biggest cultural event workshop” was launched on 23 November in Vientiane, and will run from 23-26 November. Media personnel from ASEAN member countries are attending the workshop to exchange their traditions and culture and also share news reporting skills on their biggest cultural events. The ...

Some individual sugarcane growers in Savannakhet province now owe the milling company as much as 174 million kip following their poor harvests, it was recently revealed. According to a workshop on reducing debt risks for farmers in Vientiane, some families in Savannakhet’s Xaybouly district are in ...

Passengers on a river trip in Laos in south-east Asia have told an inquest how their boat sank in seconds, killing a woman from south Wales. Johanna Powell, from Cardiff, was with three friends on the Mekong River near Pak Beng in April. The 37-year-old, a BBC ...

Authorities in the north-central province of Quang Tri busted on 23 November an illicit ring that supplied drugs and unlawfully organized gambling near the Vietnam-Laos border. Quang Tri border guards, in coordination with police in Laos’ Savannakhet Province and relevant agencies, launched a raid on the ...