People and government

Mekong basin-wide planning, environmental monitoring, flood and drought management, climate change adaption, and stakeholder engagement are some of the key areas to benefit from a renewed partnership between the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) of Australia. The technical collaboration between the MRC ...

Burma’s (Myanmar) civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban both view migration as “one of the greatest challenges” currently facing their countries and Europe and South East Asia in general, the government in Budapest said on Wednesday. In a rare trip ...

Across the river from Myanmar’s colonial-era old capital of Yangon, low-slung shanties dot rice fields that extend into a bucolic rural distance. But that could soon change if local property developers and their deep-pocketed Chinese backers build the Yangon New City Project, an ultra-modern design with ...

Thailand’s crackdown on exploitation and slavery in its multi-billion dollar fishing industry will only succeed if its neighbours step up and adopt anti-trafficking laws, said a labour rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Thai fishing vessels are increasingly registering in nearby countries to avoid scrutiny ...

Thailand’s Wildlife protection activists are calling for the suspension of the Ministry of Commerce’s new law allowing elephants to be exported overseas. Joining the campaign, the Chartthaipattana Party’s director Nikorn Chamnong said that people are confused as to why the regulations have been changed, after live ...

The so-called “death jars” of Laos could be more widespread than previously thought. Australian archaeologists and Lao Government officials have reported discovering 15 new sites containing 137 of the massive stone jars, which are believed to be around 1000 years old. Experts believe the jars are related ...

The European Union kicked off a five-day fact-finding mission in Cambodia on Monday to determine whether it should continue to benefit from a tax-free EU trade scheme, based on the state of human rights and democracy in the Southeast Asian nation. In February, the EU announced ...

The Mekong Delta has the highest rate of drowning in the country, particularly in Dong Thap province, where the number of deaths due to drowning is 10 times higher compared to that of dengue fever and hand, foot and mouth disease combined. Over the years, though ...

The Ministry of Environment is looking at places to display seized elephant ivory and other illegal exotic items to highlight the “brutality” of people, despite international conservation organisation Wildlife Alliance calling for them to be destroyed. Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra told The Post that ...

This month, the World Bank published a proposal for a $100 million development project in Rakhine state, the region of western Myanmar that recently saw the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim community. The aim of the project is to fund credit for small businesses in ...