Economy and industry

COVID-19 has forced Laos to join countries around the world in closing schools and using online distance learning. But rural and urban poor students in the Southeast Asian country not only lack computers and access to the internet — some even live in homes without ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed global trade and disrupted supply chains. The virus, which first started in China, shut manufacturing facilities for an extended period of time. As China, known as the factory of the world, shut factories, it resulted in a ripple effect battering ...

The European Union (EU) said it will provide €5 million (K7.9 billion) in cash to support garment workers in Myanmar who have been affected by COVID-19. The Myan Ku (Quick Assistance) emergency cash fund will go directly to cut, make, pack (CMP) workers who have lost ...

With Southeast Asia facing a funding deficit to meet its burgeoning energy and infrastructure needs, the region needs stronger coordination, skills and transparency in elevating sustainable projects to investors, according to the findings of a report by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA). The findings ...

As the COVID-19 situation escalates, governments worldwide are imposing travel restrictions, mandatory quarantine procedures, and curfews and lockdowns in an attempt to slow the transmission of the virus. The Thai government has announced many measures to deal with the COVID-19 outbreaks, including ordering the postponement ...

In 1975, Vietnam emerged from its 20-year-long war as one of the poorest nations in the world. Since then, its economy has been transformed — largely thanks to a package of economic and political reforms, designed to engineer growth, that was launched by the government in ...

The Vietnamese government has set new feed-in tariff (FIT) rates for utility-scale, rooftop and floating solar installations. The new purchase price for electricity generated by ground-mounted PV plants is $0.0709/kWh over a period of 20 years, and $0.0838/kWh for rooftop PV arrays. The government will also ...

As the Thai economy is heavily impacted by government attempts to control the COVID-19 outbreak, experts believe that the situation for migrant workers may contribute to the epidemic. Proper policies and employment support are needed to set things right. It has been 2 weeks since Rachen ...

Viet Nam’s economic growth rate is expected to slow sharply in 2020, to 4.8%, from the initial supply shock to economic activity from the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the subsequent and ongoing drop in demand from Viet Nam’s principal trade and investment ...

After two decades of strong performance, Cambodia’s economic growth is expected to drop to 2.3% in 2020. This is due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the resulting economic slowdown in the major advanced economies and the People’s Republic of China, and the country’s ...