People and government

Chinese drug police are working with Mekong countries to strike at the heart of a mega-rich meth syndicate as the region targets top-level drug traffickers instead of street dealers. The porous and lawless border areas of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos have for decades been a hub ...

The Shenzhen Urban Planning and Design Institute has been commissioned to undertake a masterplan to transform Sihanoukville into a modern sprawling metropolis, using the Shenzhen experience as its secret recipe. The institute is a planning, consulting, research and design agency that focuses on creating and pragmatically ...

Việt Nam and Italy have had success in their work together to improve the national Vietnamese statistic system, an official has said. Dr Nguyễn Bích Lâm, General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) of Việt Nam, made the statement at a meeting to assess the ...

In a scathing report, the European Union warned Cambodia that it has not taken enough steps to prevent a loss of its special trade privileges, noting particularly “further deterioration” of its human rights record since a review process was launched nine months ago. The confidential 70-page ...

The Thai government has also implemented a measure to reduce the demand for drugs in the country. This comes as new producers keep on emerging regardless of seizures.  They will keep doing so as long as there is demand. Signatories of the Safe Mekong Coordination Project have met ...

The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a major funder of climate projects, has approved a US$10 million project that’s expected to benefit 10 per cent of Laos’ population. The project is using nature-based solutions in four cities to build resilience towards ever-increasing floods ...

In 2017, South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced the “New Southern Policy”, which is aimed at deepening relations with Southeast Asia to the extent that four other major powers — the United States, China, Japan and Russia — have done. In his tenure, he has visited ...

A committee will be set up comprising farmers and civil society organisations to resolve farmland problems in Kachin State, U M Kawn La of the Kachin National Congress said. The committee, to initially include political party officials, law experts, civil society groups and literature associations, will discuss ...

The Japanese government has approved more than $250,000 to support the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Legal Documentation Centre to conduct its outreach activities. According to a press release issued yesterday, the Japanese government approved $251,970 to support the LDC, including the establishment of mobile outreach unit, consisting ...

The Asean summit offers a great opportunity for Mekong riparian countries to press China, a major dialogue partner, on commitments for sustainable development of the region’s most important river. Leading the Chinese delegation is Premier Li Keqiang. He is to meet our prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ...