People and government

With no single cause, and no magic solution, the congestion of Asia’s cities requires government resolve and know-how to fix. Urban congestion, more commonly known as traffic, is probably the most painful daily experience for people living in modern cities. It costs our time, ruins our ...

On a good day, fish vendor Sen Ror can make about $7.50 but that is on a good day. Usually, she only makes about a third of that, taking home roughly $2.50, which is all she has to buy food for her four children and elderly ...

Rohingya activists have accused the Myanmar Press Council, a quasi-government media adjudication and ethics body,  of defending the practice of using the word “Bengali” to refer to the Rohingya. Rights groups and Rohingya advocates argue that the term amounts to “hate speech” and that it is ...

On January 1 of this year, a new cybersecurity law entered into effect in Vietnam after its passage in the Vietnamese National Assembly in June 2018. The law (original; unofficial translation) had a number of concerning elements, which included granting the government relatively unchecked authorities to ...

The government is holding a special meeting to establish common ground among state agencies about ways to ensure effective implementation of the national development plan for 2020. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith presided over the opening of the two-day open government meeting at the National Convention Centre, ...

South Korea is urging Thailand to spearhead the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (Acmecs) for sustainable water management, after President Moon Jae-in met with Asean leaders last month in Busan under Thailand’s year-long chairmanship. Thailand co-chaired the 2019 Asean-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit and the first ...

Thailand has joined the 52 other members of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) in stressing the need to revitalise multilateralism amid ongoing challenges to the world order. The 14th Asem Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Madrid on Sunday and Monday ended with a chairman’s statement. “Ministers underlined the ...

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors Last Friday approved 50 million U.S. dollars of additional financing in Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management Project in Laos and the Lao Road Sector Project II. The additional funding will help reduce the financing gap for reconstruction following widespread ...

Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune, Lao Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism visited the headquarters of Xinhua News Agency here on Sunday for the forthcoming Second Laos-China Belt and Road Cooperation Forum. During their talks, Xinhua President Cai Mingzhao hailed the China-Laos relationship as example of China’s friendship and ...

Vietnam always treasures relations with the European Union (EU), and is willing to discuss with the bloc issues of mutual concern, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh on December 15. He made the statement while meeting with EU High Representative ...