Economy and industry
Drought, dams may lead to death of Mekong
The livelihood of millions of people in China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam will be affected as drought and newly-built dams impede the Mekong River’s flow, drying up segments of the once fast-flowing river. Observers predict that these two factors may lead to the death of ...
Azman Hamid, Patrick Sennyah, Roy Goh
Electricity consumption in Mekong delta rises
Electricity consumption in the Mekong delta averagely rises by 10.7 percent during 2010-2018, according to a seminar organized by GreenID Company and the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations in the Mekong delta City of Can Tho yesterday. Furthermore, electricity consumption in the region is forecast ...
Tuan Quang
Myanmar’s ‘Rohingya’ vs ‘Bengali’ Hate Speech Debate
Rohingya activists have accused the Myanmar Press Council, a quasi-government media adjudication and ethics body, of defending the practice of using the word “Bengali” to refer to the Rohingya. Rights groups and Rohingya advocates argue that the term amounts to “hate speech” and that it is ...
Shafiur Rahman
Vietnam’s Internet Control: Following in China’s Footsteps?
On January 1 of this year, a new cybersecurity law entered into effect in Vietnam after its passage in the Vietnamese National Assembly in June 2018. The law (original; unofficial translation) had a number of concerning elements, which included granting the government relatively unchecked authorities to ...
Justin Sherman
Vietnam Utility Dares Mekong Devastation
Inertia and the inherent tone-deafness of an authoritarian regime have set Vietnam on a course toward economic and political disaster. It is not too late, however, for the ruling party’s top leaders, the Politburo, to disavow support for state-owned PetroVietnam’s plans to build a huge ...
David Brown
Vietnam to stop licensing large-scale solar projects
In a newly published policy document, Hanoi has urged regional governments and the country’s state-run utility, EVN, to suspend authorizations for new solar parks until further notice. Around 8.93 GW of utility-scale solar capacity is already approved for development in Vietnam, according to the Ministry ...
Emiliano Bellini
Cambodia looks to hydropower, but…
Along with most Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia’s electricity consumption over the past decade has skyrocketed. In a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), electricity consumption in Cambodia has been growing rapidly, averaging 20 percent growth per annum since 2010. This rate continues ...
Pineapple growers call for official export channels to China
Pineapple growers are asking the government negotiate official exports of the crop to China as soon as possible, a farmers association says. The call comes after pineapple cultivators suffered estimated losses of K700 million (US$458 million) during the previous harvest season when China suddenly banned imports ...
Chan Mya Htwe
ASEAN’s renewable energy challenges
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has set an ambitious target of securing 23 percent of its primary energy from renewable sources by 2025 as energy demand in the region is expected to grow by 50 percent. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency ...
Laos-Vietnam promote tourism cooperation to strengthen bilateral ties
Laos and Vietnam have discussed plans on tourism cooperation, aiming to attract more visitors and strengthen ties between the two countries. Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Prof. Dr Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune welcomed Vietnamese Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Nguyen Ngoc Thien in Vientiane on ...
Viengdavanh Banphahaksa