Economy and industry

Customs data from Vietnam confirms that thousands of cubic meters of wood worth millions of dollars is continuing to reach the country from Cambodia despite a blanket ban placed on such exports four months ago. Soeng Sophari, a spokeswoman for the Commerce Ministry, which manages and ...

Weeks of delayed imports have been cleared through Yangon’s ports in the last few days after customs offices opened 24 hours a day to tackle a growing backlog of trade, but empty containers continue to stack up. As a temporary solution, the Customs Department has prioritised ...

The government will attempt to boost transparency in the energy sector by holding an auction for the two major petroleum concessions in the Gulf of Thailand ahead of their expiration dates, instead of granting existing operators the right to extend the concessions without new bidders. The ...

With 72 per cent of Cambodian black pepper production coming from Tbong Khmum province, agriculture officials are calling for it to receive Geographic Indicator status to promote the spice for export. Hean Vanhan, deputy-general director of the general department of agriculture, said on 30 May that if ...

Investors have expressed a lack of confidence in Thailand’s economy because of a decline in exports, the drought-induced expected slowdown in domestic consumption, and the sluggish global economy. Somkiat Anuras, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber’s Business Confidence Index was only ...

Foreign investment and the livelihoods of thousands of construction workers have been put at risk by the Yangon Region government’s decision to suspend all construction, developers say. Developers of hundreds of high-rise buildings now under construction in Yangon Region were forced to suspend building work on ...

Step by step, Cambodia and Thailand are edging towards nuclear power generation as the region hunts for vast, stable power sources to fuel rapid development and improve the livelihoods of growing populations. As the debate over nuclear grows, so do the region’s power needs. According to ...

Vietnam cattle feeders spent millions of US dollars importing 311,523 head of Australian young beef calves last year— betting that retail prices for beef on the supermarket shelves had nowhere to go but up. Now the feeders, who buy calves and fatten them for sale to ...

The ASEAN Community, which took effect at the end of last year, has expressed concern about the movement of skilled workers around the region. But its interest in the unskilled labour remains poor, despite the fact that this group provides the real workforce that dominates ...

Legal timber exports to Vietnam – the bulk of them rosewood – soared between 2013 and 2015, with the volume of logs exported increasing by a factor of 142 and seven times as much sawn wood passing across the border, according to a report by ...