Environment and land

Ministry of Finance and the World Bank on June 7 signed an agreement for more than 316 billion kip (US$38.6) million in credit to support key policy reforms to maintain the country’s strong economic growth. The agreement expects to benefit more people, especially the poor ...

The Second Meeting of the ASEAN Working Group on Chemicals and Waste was held in Vientiane on June 7 where a variety of topics including waste management and their corresponding facilities were discussed. Speaking at the meeting, the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment’s Director General ...

Buyers from China have found it much easier to do business in the mines of Hpakant than in Mandalay’s Maha Aung Myay Gems Trading Centre, the city’s largest emporium which features more than 1000 shops, especially if they want to buy raw or uncut jades. “I have ...

Massive deforestation is playing a crucial role in the droughts that have devastated Cambodia. But despite an official ban on timber exports, forests continue to be cut down at a record rate. One of only two countries in the world to feature a building on its ...

Đà Nẵng has established central Viet Nam’s first Green Technology Institute for Herb and Agricultural Gene Conservation. The city’s Union of Science and Engineering Associations said the institute would focus on research and conservation of precious and rare genes including more than 400 genes of herbs ...

A draft amendment to the 2003 Law on Fisheries would allow provincial people’s committees to assign, lease and withdraw sea surface areas from organisations and individuals for aquaculture farming but a National Assembly working body says the Government or ministries should do the job. Presenting ...

Even as Japan is the fifth largest importer of Việt Nam’s agricultural products, only three kinds of Vietnamese fresh fruits are being sold in the country. A report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Export and Import Department showed that Việt Nam earned US$1.46 ...

Five Mekong Delta provinces and 11 agencies have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in forming the Mekong Partnership for Climate Resilient Rice Research Network (MPCRR-N). The signatories were the departments of agriculture and rural development of An Giang, Kien Giang, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu ...

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), one of the world’s most influential sustainable forestry certification bodies, has announced that it will investigate the Indonesian oil palm operations of Korean agribusiness conglomerate Korindo in response to a formal complaint submitted by environmental group Mighty Earth. The group ...

Palm oil and paper lobby groups have asked Indonesia’s highest court to strike down rules holding plantation firms strictly liable for fires that occur on their land. The groups have also asked the Constitutional Court to eliminate a regulation letting small farmers practice slash-and-burn techniques, the ...