Economy and industry
ASEAN and the EEU: close to free trade zone?
ASEAN and EEU member countries are estimated to have a combined GDP of $3.5 trillion and a combined population of over 700 million. On August 5, Russian media outlets quoted Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev as saying that an agreement had been reached ...
GMS cross-border pact on hold
Though all countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region had signed a cross-border trade agreement 14 years ago to enhance the sub-region’s economic connectivity, the CBTA, however, is yet to be ratified in individual Mekong nations for its full implementation. This was revealed last week by ...
Monster sugar mill eats through sugarcane supply
Just three months since starting production, Cambodia’s largest sugar mill is sitting idle due to a shortage of its primary input sugarcane, a provincial Agriculture Ministry official said on August 7. Poeung Trida, director of the Preah Vihear Agricultural Department, said Rui Feng (Cambodia) International Company’s ...
Vietnam risks facing severe labour shortages
Government and business leaders speaking at a recent forum in Ho Chi Minh City have said that Vietnam is at risk of running out of skilled machinists and other manufacturing workers over the next four to five years. At the conference sponsored by the HCM City ...
China's 5 year plan for energy
China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for energy might be one of the most anticipated official documents in the world and is one that will have far-reaching impacts on the carbon trajectory of the world’s number one emitter. Recently, information about the plan begins to surface in the Chinese ...
Miles to go
Though foreign investment is soaring and GDP is expected to grow by at least 8% this year and next, both are from a tiny base. Before the army seized power, Myanmar had been one of the world’s leading rice exporters and one of Asia’s wealthiest ...
China offers to work with partners to build East Asian infrastructure
China is willing to work with all parties to build roads, railway lines, air and sea route networks in East Asia to improve regional connectivity and trade flows, Commerce Minister GaoHucheng said on August 4. These goals can be achieved through the cooperative framework of ...
Cambodia pushing for more benefits from Mekong integration
The government is seeking to develop ways of increasing the benefit felt by Cambodia from economic corridors opened throughout the Greater Mekong Subregion as part of ASEAN integration, an official has said. The economic corridors are intended to spur economic integration in ASEAN and boost infrastructure ...
Mekong agriculture lacks FDI
Bad weather, fluctuating prices and high risk in agricultural cultivation has made foreign investors hesitate in pouring capital into the sector. According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Can Tho branch, for the first six months of this year, the Mekong Delta attracted ...
Thai rice faces global price war
Thailand’s rice market is expected to face a price war next year as a result of oversupply that will lower prices in both domestic and export markets, while the stronger baht could hurt the competitiveness of rice shipments, exporters warn. Charoen Laothammatas, president of the Thai ...
