Economy and industry

On a wide bank of the Mekong River, yellow markers and visits by surveyors show preparations underway to build Laos’ third and largest dam on Southeast Asia’s most vital waterway. About an hour downstream, in the laid-back tourist centre of Luang Prabang, the dam’s developers heard ...

 Lao government officials completed a three-week training course on advanced Geographic Information Systems, which was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to enable them to undertake climate mapping and zoning. The training course, funded by the Global Environment Facility, covered spatial analysis, geo-databases, network ...

Xayaboury province is becoming a major transit hub for international tourists after the government upgraded a border crossing with Thailand to inter-national level, according to a senior provincial official.  “We are becoming a new transit hub for international tourists coming to Laos,” the province’s Deputy Governor, ...

Việt Nam is pursuing an ambitious plan to become a global agricultural powerhouse by 2030, according to Government Resolution 53/NQ-CP. The resolution stipulates that Việt Nam must aim to rank among the world’s top 15 most developed agricultural countries and a global hub for agricultural logistics ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has announced it is preparing to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC). NBC’s director-general, Chea Serey, said the central bank was developing “the national payment gateway for Cambodia.” It would serve as a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer platform with its own specially designed cryptocurrency. According ...

Tonnes of plastic waste, particularly discarded plastic bags threaten our planet with environmental pollution, and by now almost everybody knows it. However, knowing what the problem is and solving it are two different things. Luckily, a group of students have found their own way to cut ...

A team of researchers and students at the HCM City University of Science – Việt Nam National University – Ho Chi Minh City have succeeded at making a prototype lithium-ion rechargeable battery from rice husks, a common agricultural waste in Việt Nam, especially in the ...

NASA and the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Landsat 8 satellite captured images of the Mekong river before and after it turned from its signature brown to an unusual aquamarine color. According to authorities, it is possible for the green color to persist until the ...

The construction ministry inked a deal with a Thai firm to build a US$1 billion “smart city” in northeastern Yangon. The JV agreement – signed last Friday – would pave way to more than 30,000 new jobs and US$60 million in direct tax, the two sides ...

The former chief of Pak Chim, a tiny village on a tributary of the Mekong River, remembers clearly the moment he knew his hamlet would be no more. It was a decade ago. A few hundred residents of Pak Chim and nearby villages along the snaking ...