Economy and industry

For nearly two decades following its 1994 ceasefire, the Kachin Independence Organisation built up a business empire that intertwined formally with the state. The vehicle for many of these businesses is Buga Co Ltd, which the KIO’s economic department registered with the Directorate of Investment and ...

A trade representative has called for the construction of more deep-water ports in the Mekong River Delta to save money and time for seafood exporters. Nguyễn Hoài Nam, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said the move would allow firms to directly ...

Cambodia rebuffed Vietnam’s request to provide nationality to its citizens living in Kratie, Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces, with officials saying law enforcement is the Kingdom’s responsibility. Chheang Vun, the head of the National Assembly’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, Propaganda and Information, told ...

In recent weeks, the Mekong River, one of the world’s longest and largest rivers, which has been under peril due to a confluence of development, demographic, and geopolitical pressures, has been at its lowest levels in a century. Dams upstream are holding back much needed water ...

The Finance Ministry wants to revamp the structure of the excise tax on fuels to base it on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to protect the environment. Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana delegated the Fiscal Policy Office and the Excise ...

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce will continue efforts to improve or remove unnecessary measures and regulations relating to exports and imports to bolster cross-border trade. Officials in charge of trade facilitation met in Vientiane last week for the 2nd Trade Facilitation Committee Secretariat meeting to ...

Digital transformation is the number one concern of directors and business executives globally in 2019, according to research conducted by the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative at North Carolina State University and the management consulting firm Protiviti Inc. Just a year ago, the researchers said, it ...

In 2015, ASEAN and China signed an upgraded protocol to improve the original Framework Agreement for the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA). The upgraded protocol entered into force in July 2016 and implementation will start from August 2019. Since ACFTA was launched, China’s share of ASEAN ...

Hundreds of residents in a largely Catholic district of central Vietnam’s Quang Binh province protested on Thursday to oppose the enlargement of a local dam, saying that an increase in the dam’s height will raise the risk of floods, Vietnamese sources said. The Rao Nan Dam ...

The Mekong River, a critical waterway for six countries in Southeast Asia, is registering critically low water levels this summer. The Mekong River Commission (MRC), which monitors Southeast Asia’s longest river, reported in mid-July that water levels over the previous month had fallen to “among the lowest ...