People and government

Japanese microfinance lender MJI Enterprise has started offering three new types of loan and is expanding into two new areas, its chief executive told The Myanmar Times. Yuko Kato said the firm is now offering education, health-care and solar power loans, in addition to its ...

While many university trainees refuse to return to Da Nang after finishing courses overseas, others have returned as promised, but then expect to leave again. Under Project 922 initiated by the Da Nang authorities 10 years ago, excellent researchers and university lecturers are sent to overseas ...

Tens of millions of Saigonese not only suffer from the effects of waste water, hazardous waste and emissions, but also from noise. Medical experts say that noise has damaging effects – physiological, psychological and social.  Physiologically, when noise exceeds acceptable levels, noise can cause ear injury ...

The National Dengue Control Program, a department under the Health Ministry, remains skeptical in the implementation of a new dengue-prevention method, citing concerns about the program’s long-term sustainability.Despite a Malaria Consortium pilot project – which uses guppy fish to eat mosquito larvae to stem the ...

Women from the entertainment industry have stood up to protest abuses and violence they suffer at work. A 16-day campaign by their union was launched on December 4, but officials say only five percent of women in the service industry are brave enough to speak ...

A remote tribe in northeast Cambodia were crucial participants in a new study that concludes the way our bodies express emotions is universal, rather than dictated by the cultures in which we are raised. The work of four American psychologists, the finding is soon to ...

The heads of diplomatic missions in Laos have expressed confidence that the current National Socio-Economic Development Plan will lead to tangible progress in achieving continuous, inclusive and sustainable growth. This was the main message delivered by foreign diplomats to the country’s leaders, government and citizens ...

The Japanese government has provided grant assistance of more than US$450,381 to build secondary school facilities and support gender education in Bokeo province. A signing ceremony for a grant contract for the project took place on December 1 between the Ambassador of Japan to Laos, ...

Laos needs to rethink its aggressive hydropower plans as new markets and technologies create an opportunity to change course. A report published in September by the Stimson Center, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, challenges prevailing notions about the future of hydropower in the Mekong subregion, an ...

Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, 64, became Thailand’s new king on December 1 after he accepted an invitation from parliament to succeed his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in October. King Bhumibol, 88, was widely loved and regarded as a pillar of stability during decades of ...