News
Mekong area needs $3.8b for projects
The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region will need more than VND86.3 trillion (US$3.83 billion) in the 2016-20 period to develop key infrastructure projects to fuel its economic growth, according to the Ministry of Transport. Around VND65 trillion ($2.8 billion) of the total funding will go to ...
Devaluation risk rises in Vietnam
Vietnam’s dong fell toward the brink of its permitted trading range as a ban on interest payments on US dollar deposits held onshore failed to cool speculation the currency is poised for its fourth devaluation in a year. The State Bank of Vietnam cut the dollar ...
Drawdown of troops at Preah Vihear
Cambodia is quietly reducing troop numbers on the contentious shared border with Thailand in Preah Vihear province. Citing the current good relations with Cambodia’s western neighbour, Ministry of Defence spokesman Chhum Socheath on 17 December said members of three units had been ordered to leave the border ...
Deaths in childbirth plunge
The number of mothers who died in labour has nearly halved over the past four years, down from 182 fatalities in 2011 to 100 this year, the Ministry of Health’s research commission into maternal mortality revealed on 17 December. The dramatically reduced death rate was largely ...
Overcrowding plagues Cambodia's classrooms
A primary school teacher’s complaint this week that his class numbers nearly 70 students in Oddar Meanchey’s Anlong Veng town has shed light on the broader issue of overcrowding in Cambodia’s rural schools. The Ministry of Education acknowledges a severe shortfall of teachers, and has tried to ...
Myanmar still behind ASEAN peers in UN report
Despite continuing its positive trend and rise through the ranks, Myanmar remains identified as a country with low human development in the annual United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Human Development Report, released on 16 December. The report – titled Work for Human Development – ranks Myanmar ...
Ministry set to introduce social pension in January
Nonagenarians and centenarians are to receive their social pensions starting next month, the government says. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement will provide the annual K18,000 payment to 7754 elderly men and 15,619 elderly women aged from 90 upward, a total of 23,373 ...
Transition teams kick off months-long dialogue
Transition committees set up to ensure a smooth handover of power are to meet four times a week until March, a senior National League for Democracy member said on 16 December. The government and NLD both formed eight-member teams on December 10 to coordinate the transition ...
Forestry has helped many families
Since its inception in the year 2000, the Forest Sector Support Partnership (FSSP) has supported Vietnam in environmental protection; improving livelihoods of people in forestry areas and enhancing the contribution of forestry to the economy, said Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural ...
Ho Chi Minh City adopts poverty measures
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council has recently approved adoption of a multi-dimensional poverty measure in the city’s 2016-20 poverty reduction programme. It measures, besides income, also deprivation in terms of five basic needs — education, health care, employment and social insurance, living conditions, and ...
