People and government
Extortion and abuse: Myanmar workers arrive debt-laden in Thailand
A “mafia” of recruitment agents is trapping Myanmar migrants to Thailand in debt bondage despite a 2017 law meant to fight exploitation in the kingdom’s notoriously shadowy job market, activists and workers say. Keep reading ...
Winter is coming: Nakhon Phanom residents thrill to the Mekong chill
Residents in downtown Nakhon Phanom are pulling on their winter clothes and flocking to riverside parks to enjoy an unseasonal cold snap. Temperatures beside the Mekong River in the northeastern province have plunged to a chilling 15 degrees Celsius, drawing out large numbers of local ...
What’s in the First Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Trilateral Border Exchange?
Later this week, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia will hold the first iteration of a new trilateral border exchange between them in Vietnam. Though the event was just one among many developments within the management of border relations between these countries, its significance nonetheless bears noting ...
Thai post-coup foreign policy
On the surface, it seems that Thailand has been able to exploit its relationship with China to offset Western sanctions. But reconciliation with the West was also perceived as a success of Thailand’s pro-China policy. Keep reading ...
China to work with ASEAN on 'stabilizer' sea code
China said Monday it was “ready to work” with the Philippines and ASEAN towards a code of conduct in disputed waters, which will serve as a “stabilizer” in the region. Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN earlier this year agreed to ...
ASEAN to sign MOU allowing smaller vessels to travel in region’s waters
Transport ministers of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) will sign next month a memorandum of understanding (MOU), allowing non-conventional size ships, including wooden boats, to cross the maritime borders of the countries within the region, Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Executive Director Romeo ...
A tonne of marijuana seized on the banks for the Mekong
Thai authorities have seized 1,000 kilograms (1 tonne) of marijuana from a spot along the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province around midday yesterday (Sunday). The Tha Uthen district chief Bhumisak Khampu conformed the discovery. He joined the officials in inspecting the drug stored in ...
Lancang-Mekong Vocational Education Training Center launched in Cambodia
The China-funded Lancang-Mekong Vocational Education Training Center, along with the Cambodia Luban Workshop, was inaugurated here on Sunday. The center was established under the cooperation between the National Polytechnic Institute of Cambodia (NPIC) and China’s Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences. It is located in ...
Why Cambodia's Poverty Statistics Dispute Matters
How many Cambodians are living in poverty? According to the government’s figures, using income as the only indicator, poverty stands at 13.5 percent, a considerable feat given that it was in the realm of 40 percent only two decades ago. It is also something the ...
8000 Rohingyas to return to Myanmar soon, FM tells ASEM Summit
Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has expressed hope that the first batch of eight thousand Rohingya people would be able to return to their original villages in Rakhine State of Myanmar soon. Citing the issue of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals who took shelter in ...
