Environment and land

Twelve special economic zones (SEZs) established across the country have attracted investment of almost US$5.7 billion and created thousands of jobs for local people, a report this week showed. The zones’ developers have invested US$4.28 billion, individual companies invested US$1.36 billion, and the Lao government has ...

Seawater has intruded into the Mekong Delta’s largest reservoir, Kenh Lap in Ben Tre Province. A local man tested water from it and using a salinity meter on Monday and got a reading of 1.45 parts per thousand (ppt). Fresh water has a salinity of 0.5 ppt ...

In a remote part of northern Laos, the bamboo forest gives way to cranes. A city is being carved out of jungle: tower blocks cloaked in scaffolding loom over restaurants, karaoke bars and massage parlours. The beating heart of Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (so ...

Việt Nam is pursuing an ambitious plan to become a global agricultural powerhouse by 2030, according to Government Resolution 53/NQ-CP. The resolution stipulates that Việt Nam must aim to rank among the world’s top 15 most developed agricultural countries and a global hub for agricultural logistics ...

Golden earrings swing from San San Thwin’s ears as she serves customers in her grocery store in Mingalun village, 90 miles from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon. This is what she has done almost every day for 30 years, but there has been a striking change ...

Thailand’s sugar production is likely to fall 28% year-on-year in 2019/20 to a nine-year low of 10.5 million tonnes as drought curtails cane supplies, the head of a leading trade body told Reuters on Friday. The lower production will limit exports from the world’s second-biggest exporter ...

Tonnes of plastic waste, particularly discarded plastic bags threaten our planet with environmental pollution, and by now almost everybody knows it. However, knowing what the problem is and solving it are two different things. Luckily, a group of students have found their own way to cut ...

For months now, a single, rare Irrawaddy river dolphin, apparently entangled in a fishing net and disoriented, has been spotted in Southeast Asia’s struggling Mekong River, far from its normal habitat in northern Cambodia. Conservationists are scrambling to come up with a plan to help the ...

NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Landsat 8 satellite captured images of the Mekong river before and after it turned from its signature brown to an unusual aquamarine color. According to authorities, it is possible for the green color to persist until the ...

Golden earrings swing from San San Thwin’s ears as she serves customers in her grocery store in Mingalun village, 90 miles from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon. This is what she has done almost every day for 30 years, but there has been a striking change ...