Long accused of complacency over the economic toll of cyber breaches, Southeast Asian governments are starting to make all the right noises on enhanced safeguards – but there are still few signs that the vulnerable business sector is getting the message. Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, ...

The collapse of a dam this summer in southeastern Laos, which triggered massive flooding that killed dozens and displaced thousands of people, has brought a renewed focus on hydroelectric dams in mainland Southeast Asia. Proponents of hydroelectric dams argue they will bring benefits in the ...

(KPL) Continuing the United States’ leading support to the Lao PDR in its mission to eliminate malaria by 2030, U.S. Ambassador to Laos Rena Bitter presented 100,000 rapid diagnostic test (RDT) kits to Dr. Phouthone Muoangpak, Vice Minister of Health, at a handover ceremony in ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Laos is now seeking ways to increase the number of businesswomen as part of the government’s effort to promote female entrepreneurship and offer opportunities for them to showcase and share achievements of women-owned businesses.To this end, the SME Service Centre (SSC) ...

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc said Việt Nam is ready to contribute to co-operation as part of the Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Việt Nam (CLMV) mechanism. Attending the 9th CLMV Summit (CLMV 9) in Bangkok, Thailand on Saturday, Phúc said Việt Nam would help the countries attend trade fairs in ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Kaolao cave in Nam-Eng village, Viengphoukha district, Luang Namtha province, will reopen at the end of this year after being closed for five months so that visitor amenities can be built.Head of the Luang Namtha provincial Information, Culture and Tourism Department, ...

The Mekong River Commission Council yesterday approved a five-year strategy until 2025 which allows Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam to prepare for and manage drought collectively. The approval comes as the MRC’s preliminary data analysis shows that severe to extreme drought is expected to hit countries ...

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 ...

IFC helps companies and governments to consider the cumulative impacts of hydropower projects from a broad, basin-wide perspective that includes planned upstream and downstream developments. Our cumulative impact assessment (CIA) work in the hydropower sector spans from Lao PDR, to Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. In Lao ...

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 ...

Staying safe online during the pandemicThe COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need to protect not only one’s own physical health, but also our digital selves. The Open Development Initiative has developed a set of nine tips for staying safe online during the pandemic. This is in ...

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 ...