News
Vietnam’s low-cost COVID-19 battle shows the world what can be done
Daily, a staggering quarter of a million people use the public bus network in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest metropolis. This week, just a month after services were suspended, the distinctive green vehicles are back on the roads. That’s good news for the millions ...
Misha Coleman, Margaret Sheehan
Myanmar fisheries sector nears collapse as orders tumble
Myanmar’s fisheries sector will face its largest loss in history if demand does not pick up very soon, said U Myo Nyunt, secretary of the Myanmar Fisheries Products Processors & Exporters Association (MPEA). “Exports have collapsed. All international orders have been cancelled and we have not ...
CHAN MYA HTWE
Vietnam’s Economy to Grow Fastest in Southeast Asia Despite COVID-19: ADB
According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Vietnam’s economy has shown strong growth in 2019, as a result of high domestic demand, a strong manufacturing and processing industry, and high Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The second outbreak of COVID-19 in March started a new phase in the fight against the pandemic, severely ...
Do Thanh Ha
Laos pushes ahead with sixth Mekong River dam project
Laos has submitted plans to build a new hydropower dam on the Mekong River, with construction expected to start later this year, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Monday. The Sanakham hydropower plant, with an estimated cost of $2.073 billion (£1.7 billion), will be developed ...
Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Kay Johnson and Alexander Smith
Roving bandits and looted coastlines: How the global appetite for sand is fuelling a crisis
Next to water, sand is our most consumed natural resource. The global demand for sand and gravel stands between 40 billion and 50 billion tonnes annually, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and its scarcity is an emerging global crisis. The world may run out of sand if we ...
Melissa Marschke, Jean-François Rousseau, Laura Schoenberger and Michael Hoffmann
Cambodia considers licensing mining at four coal sites
The Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy is set to review applications soon for rights to four coal mining concession areas it opened late in March in the northern region of the country, the Phnom Penh Post reported. The ministry said in a press release that interested national ...
Mekong nations face growing threat to food security amid claims China’s dams exacerbate effects of drought
Fishermen in northeast Thailand say they have seen catches in the Mekong River plunge, while some farmers in Vietnam and Cambodia are leaving for jobs in cities as harvests of rice and other crops shrink. The common thread driving these events is erratic water levels in ...
Laura Zhou
Indigenous People Protest Over Farmland in Keo Seima Sanctuary
More than 200 indigenous people in Mondulkiri province’s Keo Seima district protested on Tuesday for access to farmland inside a wildlife sanctuary, which the Environment Ministry banned them from last month, citing conservation laws. Bun Nat, a representative of the protesters, said 250 ethnic minority Bunong ...
Khan Leakhena
EU Lists Cambodia Among ‘High-Risk’ Nations for Money Laundering
The E.U. has listed Cambodia as one of 12 “high-risk” countries with deficient anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing efforts, but the government on Friday said officials were working hard to get the nation off international watch lists. The European Commission on Thursday adopted a new list ...
Matt Surrusco and Nhim Sokhorn
Water shortages in upper Myanmar
Kyar Kone Te Tike is a small town in Magwe division in central Myanmar, about 19 miles away from the Magwe Natmauk Road. Daw Mar Oo has lived here all of her life. Come summertime, finding drinking water is always a struggle. There are three small hand-dug ...
AUNG PHAY KYI SOE
