Economy and industry

As only 0.5 per cent of the population has access to electronic payments so far, Visa Inc, the global payments firm, sees a lot of room for improvement in Myanmar. Arturo Planell, Visa country manager for Myanmar, said at a press conference last week that ...

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has underscored the need to create an equal and transparent climate in order to facilitate the operation of small-and medium-sized enterprises. ​​Speaking at the third national congress of the Vietnam Association of SMEs (VINASME) in Hà Nội on December 3, ...

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 ...

The Ministry of Labor has established a working group to investigate the use of child labor at some brick-making factories to the north of the capital, but has yet to find a case about debt bondage and child labor as mentioned in a recent report ...

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 ...

With US president-elect Donald Trump threatening to build a wall on the Mexican border and force Asian allies to increase defence spending, Beijing is busy luring countries across the eastern hemisphere into its orbit. President Xi Jinping, who is consolidating his power at home, is ...

As the government has found itself without enough cash to complete development projects scheduled in the current fiscal year, one cabinet member has aired an unusual proposal for financing the shortfall: tea money. Speaking in parliament on December 1, the minister for agriculture, livestock and ...

A New report on the state of the garment industry from Progressive Voice found that last year’s minimum wage law is causing negative workplace impacts for a majority of labourers and, for many, is still not resulting in a living wage.​​ The report, released on ...

Rice shipments out of Thailand are expected to fare better than the government’s target of 10 million tonnes because of price competitiveness and recovering exports of hom mali fragrant rice, shippers say. Even so, that amount would be insufficient to retake the title of world’s ...

The Finance Ministry has backed away from developing the 500-rai Makkasan plot owned by the State Railway of Thailand under a debt-for-land deal with the rail agency. The State Enterprise Policy Commission, or the superboard, earlier agreed to a proposal that the SRT lease the Makkasan ...