Construction of a long-awaited Thai-Chinese railway line that will link Thailand, Laos and China officially began on Thursday with a ground-breaking ceremony in the northeastern Thai province of Nakhon Ratchasima.[]“Thailand is developing in every aspect to become the centre of connectivity and this route ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) says environment and water-resource ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam have approved a navigation plan for the four countries and a regional environmental strategy. In a statement, the MRC said the two documents were among several approved during a virtual ...

(KPL) The Government of Japan has provided grant assistance worth USD 746,128 to support the removal of unexploded ordnance – UXO – utilizing cluster munitions machine in Xieng Khuang Province on Dec 11, 2019.A contract on the grant project was signed at the Embassy of ...

(KPL) A delegation of government officials, ambassadors and UN representatives traveled to Khammuan Province on Jan 21-22 to monitor progress in implementing an emergency grant the Lao PDR received from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) last October.The US$3.5 million grant was given ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Laos will continue to cooperate with regional and development partners to protect migrant workers’ rights, a conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia was told last week.Conducted under the theme ‘Toward the Protection of Migrant Workers in CLMTV Countries: Cooperation in Social Security’, ...

PHONGSALY, Laos (Vientiane Times/ANN) – European Union (EU) Ambassador to the Lao PDR, Leo Faber, and UNICEF Representative Octavian Bivol recently made a four-day visit to Phongsaly province to observe nutrition interventions under the Partnership for Improved Nutrition (PIN).After arriving in Bounneua district on April ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Population Services International (PSI) will provide US$4.9 million to help Laos improve the health sector from 2019 to 2022.The new assistance package “Concerning Strengthening Public Health Emergency Operations Centre to Accelerate Malaria Elimination and Respond to Public Health Emergencies in the ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Businesses and the general public prefer to deposit their money in foreign currency accounts despite the Bank of the Lao PDR actively promoting use of the national currency.According to the latest annual report from the Bank of the Lao PDR, the ...

Representatives from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam gathered in Vientiane on Thursday to launch a six-month consultation process on what would be the third mainstream hydropower dam in Laos’s Lower Mekong River. Laos first signalled its intention to move ahead with the proposed 912-megawatt Pak ...

The governor of a province in Laos hit by flooding from a dam breach earlier this year has issued conflicting estimates of the projected cost to house displaced persons, giving figures deemed unnecessarily high by another official source and contradicting statements he himself had made ...

Lao authorities confirmed that fish found floating dead in the Nam Ngao river in Huayxai district, Bokeo province died as a result of poisonous chemicals contaminating the river.​ Officials confirmed the findings after samples of the dead fish were brought for analysis last week. The ...

Thailand’s energy authority plans to add Singapore to its regional energy grid by 2023, along with Cambodia and Myanmar, said Kulit Sombatsiri, permanent secretary for energy. The move follows the success of a Laos-Thailand-Malaysia deal, in which Thailand buys electricity from hydroelectric power plants in Laos ...

Unseasonal drought, floods and the negative impact of hydropower projects on the Mekong River’s ecology were major concerns raised by residents of northeastern provinces at a public hearing on the Luang Prabang Dam on Tuesday. Pradap Klatkhemphet, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the National Water ...

Just over a week ago, many people in Thailand, particularly those in highrises, were thrown into panic when their buildings were swaying. They didn’t know at the time that a strong earthquake had just hit inside Lao borders near Nan’s district of Chaloem Phrakiat. The shallow ...

Infrastructure development under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model is taking shape in Laos as the government requires huge capital investment to improve road networks and other facilities. Lao economists have supported the initiative, saying that with the government’s limited funding, it’s critical to encourage the involvement ...

Citizens from eight Thai provinces along the Mekong River are suing state agencies because they claim there was inadequate public participation in planning for the Pak Beng hydropower dam, which is being built by Laos.The Thai Network of Eight Mekong Provinces filed a lawsuit in ...

The Mekong is one of the world’s great rivers — a 5,000-kilometer waterway threading from China through Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  However, dams have subverted the ecosystem, bringing drought during the monsoon season and high waters when it should be dry. That has forever changed ...

The project plans were finalized on 25 July after 45 days of discussion by the government and contractors. The Mekong Intercontinental hotel, one of the projects, is projected to be the highest hotel Laos. The other project involves the construction of a large warehouse. Construction ...

Representatives of Cambodia, Laos and Việt Nam have agreed to assign Việt Nam to devise an action plan for effectively implementing the Agreement on Trade Promotion and Facilitation in the CLV Development Triangle Area, signed in 2016 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is one of the important ...

The Mekong River Commission Tuesday acknowledged that climate change played a role in this year’s widely varying water levels on the Mekong, but said that dam construction was the main culprit in sharp water level increases and decreases, emphasizing a need for data-sharing between countries. The ...