Economy and industry

Countries in the lower Mekong basin are watching anxiously to see whether their “big brother” to the north will tackle the growing Mekong River crisis. China controls the upper section of the river, which rises on the Tibetan Plateau and runs through Laos, the North and ...

According to latest statistics from Electricity of Vietnam ( EVN ), The country has 82 solar power plants connect to power network in past two months, with total 4,464 MW, and it accounts about 8.28% in Vietnam electricity supply mix, which is far more than ...

Heavy monsoonal rains in northeastern Laos ripped through a small one-megawatt hydropower dam in Xieng Khouang province’s Pek district earlier this week, causing extensive damage and flooding rice fields and property, local residents said Wednesday. “Because of heavy rainfall and too much water, the dam couldn’t ...

The newest solar farm in the Kingdom, built in Kampong Speu by SchneiTec Renewable, has been completed and is fully operational, the Ministry of Mines and Energy announced yesterday. The farm, located on 200 hectares of land in Kampong Speu’s Oudong district, can produce 60 megawatts, ...

Lao government officials have dismissed social media reports that the Xayaboury dam in northern Laos is slowing the flow of water to downstream sections of the Mekong River. The dam is built on the run-of-river model, which does not require water to be stored, local daily ...

Major dam construction projects have become a favourite pastime of some autocratic governments, with China leading the way. But, far from protecting against water shortages, as supporters promise, large dams are contributing to river depletion and severely exacerbating parched conditions. Nowhere is this more apparent ...

Local residents and civil society organizations in Shan State will submit an open letter this week to the Union and state governments with recommendations for Shan State’s energy policy following a seminar on energy strategy held in Taunggyi from July 27-28. The open letter calls on ...

In the early hours of a Sunday morning this past March, officers manning a roadside checkpoint in Thailand’s Prachuap Khiri Khan province were hardly fooled when an approaching pick-up attempted to bypass their blockade by hastily detouring down a side road 300m away. The officers gave ...

Construction of a bridge across the Mekong River in Luang Prabang which will carry the Laos-China railway is running ahead of schedule, according to Chinese construction companies. The companies in charge of the bridge and railway construction project on Sunday invited local and foreign media to ...

Activists representing Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam yesterday urged their respective governments to consider the lives of people living around the Mekong River when building infrastructure projects. Some of the activists urged governments to increase impact assessment initiatives, while others called for the suspension of all ongoing ...