People and government

Thailand will invest an initial US$1 million to establish a Science, Technology and Innovation Development Fund for ASEAN. After the first ASEAN Science & Technology Innovation Forum, held in Bangkok last week, Science and Technology Minister Pichet Durongkaveroj said the forum had come up with three plans to ...

Myanmar’s leading garment industry body has been buoyed by the lifting of sanctions it hopes will see a return to the glory days for the sector, when in the early 2000s a majority of country’s garments were shipped to the US. Speaking at a manufacturing trade ...

The official visit to Vietnam by Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte from September 28-29 is expected to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries, especially in politics, security, defence, and economics. This is President Duterte’s first visit to Vietnam and his fourth foreign trip since ...

Even as more Singaporeans had babies last year, Singapore’s population growth remained low, rising 1.3 per cent to reach 5.61 million in June. The statistics, released on September 27 by the National Population and Talent Division in its annual Population in Brief report, also showed that ...

The Interior Ministry on September 25 ordered governors of provinces nationwide except in the South to set up flood prevention and alleviation centres to deal with ongoing flooding in many provinces. The order was issued by Interior Ministry permanent secretary Krissada Boonraj. Krissada stated in the order ...

The government has further pursued the national development policy and mainstreamed the Sustainable Development Goals into its 8th five-year National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2016-2020), the Development Strategy 2025, and Vision 2030. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith outlined the government’s stance on the SDGs at the 71st Session ...

The Environment Protection Fund and the World Bank recently provided funding for the second phase of four environmental and social protection sub-projects in Laos at a cost of more than US$4 million. The first sub-project named Capacity Building for Pollution Control, Waste and Hazardous Chemicals Management ...

Việt Nam and South Korea began the 15th session of the Joint Economic Committee on September 22, with talks focusing on ways to boost cooperation and address pending issues. Deputy minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Thế Phương said the two countries had made significant achievements ...

Facing international pressure for failing to stop human trafficking in its seafood sector, Thailand promised almost a year ago to compensate victims of slavery and industry leaders vowed to bring all shrimp processing in-house. That hasn’t always happened. Instead, some formerly enslaved shrimp peelers have been ...

Laos, Thailand and Malaysia concluded a deal on September 21 which will see Malaysia buy 100 MW of electricity from Laos via Thailand’s power grid. Top energy officials of the three countries signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the sidelines of the 34th ASEAN Ministers on Energy ...