People and government

Officials in citizen management from Laos, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia met in Pakxe City, Champassak province this week to discuss civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS). Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Siphouk Vongphakdy; Champassak province Deputy Governor, Somsanith Bouttivong; and Counsellor at the ...

The 87th Mekong River joint patrol led by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand started on Tuesday from Jingha Port in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The patrol, expected to last four days and three nights, will involve joint inspections and an anti-drug publicity campaign. The four countries ...

Surrounded by low-hanging clouds, mud and chickens in a village deep in the northern hills, a young woman tells me, “We are not Thai and we try not to be Thai. Sometimes I find myself talking to my family in Thai and I think, ‘No, ...

All Lao people, including general workers and farmers, who are not government officials or private sector members of the National Social Security Fund will be eligible for benefits under a new scheme. The Fund has announced the establishment of the Voluntary Social Security Project For All ...

It is necessary to further promote public awareness of women’s empowerment, especially their political participation, although the percentage of women in Vietnam’s parliament is currently higher than the global average, said a minister. At a conference reviewing the 10-year implementation of the Law on Gender Equality held in Hanoi ...

From the outside, ASEAN has been testing the limits of its non-interference policy in ways never done before, being a diplomatic bridge to Myanmar while pressing it to address international criticism for its treatment of its Rohingya minority. But from inside Myanmar, ASEAN’s role in ...

The change in the composition of the National Hazardous Substances Committee (NHSC), which regulates use of three harmful farm chemicals — paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos — could add complications to a move to have the trio banned. The new composition under the Industry Ministry permanent secretary ...

The Japanese government is funding a grant aid project worth US$17.8 million to improve the water supply system in Luang Prabang city, under a grant agreement signed in Vientiane on Thursday. The agreement was signed by the Director General of the Department of International Cooperation of ...

Every day thousands of tourists soak up life on the Mekong River, the seventh longest river in Asia.  They take cruises, stay at boutique hotels or tuck into a grand lunch at a riverside restaurant.  The river is the most compelling reason they travel to a ...

These days, I get nostalgic every time I make a trip to Hanoi. This time around, it was about Vietnam’s street food scene. When I first came to Hanoi in 1986, my favourite eating place was at the corner of Ly Thuong Kiet and Pham ...