Originating in the Tibetan highlands and running through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam, the Mekong and its tributaries provide water, food and income for 60 million people. The longest river in Southeast Asia is home to the world’s largest inland fishery. It ...

The Mekong River, a critical waterway for six countries in Southeast Asia, is registering critically low water levels this summer. The Mekong River Commission (MRC), which monitors Southeast Asia’s longest river, reported in mid-July that water levels over the previous month had fallen to “among the lowest ...

Recent weeks have seen new developments in the ongoing tension over the Mekong river and its waters, as the river basin faces ecological crises and its waters play an ever-larger role in geopolitics. Thailand has announced that it is reconsidering its decision to purchase power from the planned Sanakham ...

The young people sitting together in a classroom at Chiang Mai University came from countries across the region, yet they do not only identify as Cambodian, Lao, Myanmar, Thai or Vietnamese. Keep reading ...

Visa applications to Thailand from Laos via Vientiane are set to get a shakeup with the introduction of an online appointment system, Thailand’s Embassy has confirmed.Long queues into the Thai consulate in Vientiane are set to become a thing of the past, with all appointments to ...

Laos joined other countries and development partners at the Sector Ministers’ Meeting (SMM) which was convened by the Sanitation and Water for All partnership in San Jose, Costa Rica on April 4-5. Topics at the meeting centred on supporting the achievement of the water, sanitation and ...

Mekong River water levels that fell dramatically on Thursday under impact from dam operations will soon recover, says the national water management agency. Somkiat Prajumwong, secretary-general at the Office of National Water Resources (ONWR), offered the reassurance despite warnings from experts that the dams are destroying ...

Drastic ecological change of the Mekong is linked with hydropower development. Water fluctuation due to operation of upstream dams is indicating by the fish species and their stocks declined. We visited two communities located along the Mekong River. The first community is in Chiang Khan District, ...

The unchecked growth of freewheeling business enclaves and casinos in and around Laos is opening new money laundering and drug trafficking options for crime networks using the country to push spiraling volumes of narcotics across Asia, the United Nations warns. As China and Thailand tighten their ...

Development partners on Thursday asked the Mekong River Commission to prioritise policies to protect the basin in future development strategies, noting that the Mekong river basin is among the most vulnerable regions due to climate change. Representatives from European Union, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg, ...

Despite concerted efforts by officials to end the illegal wildlife trade through regular inspections at markets throughout the country, the trade continues to flourish. To reduce illegal wildlife trading in Laos, especially in the main towns, the authorities have asked various agencies to join the ...

The Korea Forest Service held the 9th meeting of the Korea-Mekong Forest Cooperation Committee on Oct. 14 and discussed ways to strengthen forest cooperation to jointly respond to climate change with four countries in the Mekong region — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. The online meeting ...

A patrol of the Mekong Riverine Unit seized 635 kilogrammes of compressed marijuana on the bank of the Mekong river in Tha Uthen district in the small hours of Monday. The patrol spotted a pickup covered with canvas on the bank of the Mekong river near ...

China and the countries of the lower Mekong River are teaming up for their largest joint study yet of the impacts climate change and hydropower dams are having on one of Asia’s great waterways, and how to cope with the growing threats from floods and ...

Though all countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region had signed a cross-border trade agreement 14 years ago to enhance the sub-region’s economic connectivity, the CBTA, however, is yet to be ratified in individual Mekong nations for its full implementation. This was revealed last week by ...

Construction of dams on the Mekong continues. The river is 4,000 kilometers long, rising on the Tibetan plateau and flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The stretch of this river that flows through the Chinese territory is 2,130 km. It’s called Lan-ts’ang River. Chinese ...

For more than two decades, communities in Southeast Asia have been facing threats from the expansion of hydropower development. Dams have been justified by the governments of Southeast Asian countries as the main development agenda, which would generate large amounts of income and contribute to ...

The government has announced that all international border crossings will reopen, so that Lao and foreign nationals, well as stateless people, can enter and exit Laos freely.The Prime Minister’s Office on Saturday (May 7) issued a notice declaring that borders would reopen.The reopening of Laos ...

Laos has signed an agreement with a South Korean company giving it a concession for the use of a 1,200-hectare plot of land to build a resort worth USD 2.9 billion.Acting Director General of the General Logistics Department, Police Brigadier General Mr. Thongsouk Yaeulaoly and ...

The Vientiane International Airport Expansion Project has now achieved 11 percent of its contractual goals and should be complete by the beginning of 2018, according to a press release from the Embassy of Japan to Laos and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The project is ...