“Pulse of the Forest” showcases both the threats and the potential for the forests of the Greater Mekong region, which consists of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The region is one of 11 global deforestation fronts – areas that in the coming decades ...

Civil servants and young people are the biggest drinkers in Vietnam, according to a recent survey by the Institute of Sociology in Hanoi.   The institute on 25 November released the results of the survey, conducted in Hanoi and Lao Cai Province in the north, Da Nang City ...

One of the five major drug smuggling groups operating in the region has been crushed and its 26 networks destroyed by the Safe Mekong Joint Operation, Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya announced on Wednesday.Gen Paiboon was briefing the media on progress in the third phase of ...

Opportunities in the tourism business in Nan, in the eastern part of the Northern region, will be highlighted once the 114-kilometre Hongsa-Chiangman Road is completed in 2018, making it a short cut to Luang Prabang in Laos. “There will be an opportunity to do business in ...

Southeast Asian ministers in charge of security held talks with their Japanese counterpart on 1 October in a bid to enhance cooperation in tackling terrorism and cybercrime. Eriko Yamatani, a cabinet minister and also the chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission, led a delegation for the ...

China deserves credit for shutting down the illegal trading in elephant ivory that has contributed in recent years to the killing of thousands of African pachyderms. But much credit should also go to international nongovernment organizations that have championed the elephants’ cause and raised public ...

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has declared Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam have the highest potential risk of African Swine Fever (ASF) virus due to the spreads of ASF in Yunnan Province in China which borders Myanmar, said Dr. Min Thein Maw, Director of Livestock ...

Recent work by the Stimson Center, IUCN, the University of California-Berkeley, and The Nature Conservancy shows if Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam take advantage of recent advances in renewable power generation and transmission technologies, they can achieve energy security (defined as the uninterrupted availability of ...

Delegations from all six members of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), including Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the third friendship border exchange program in Vietnam’s Hanoi capital on Saturday evening. During the exchange program, with the presence of Vietnam’s top legislator ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will hold an international Forum on Economic Development and Public Policy in Bali, Indonesia on December 7-8, 2017.The invitation-only forum is themed “Riding the Waves of Technological Change: The Way Forward to Drive Productivity and Alleviate Inequality”Participants will be senior ...

Mekong Institute, supported by the New Zealand Aid Programme, is going to organize Communicating Food Safety: Regional Media Training Program on Food Safety Reporting in CLMV on August 6–10 at Mekong Institute in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Full scholarships will be provided to about 20 media/communication professionals of Cambodia, Lao ...

Countries in the Mekong basin, notably those located in the lower part of the river – Asia’s seventh longest – are in need of a collective strategy to secure their future, given China’s control of the upstream part and ongoing changes in global geo-politics. The ...

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) World Factbook 2017 has reported that Malaysia’s poverty rate is the lowest among South-East Asian countries, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak.He said it was just 3.8% compared to Vietnam and Indonesia (11.3%), Thailand (12.6%) ...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will chair the meeting in Sanya on 23 March, which will also involve the leaders of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. They will discuss the formulation of initiatives and measures under the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation.  At Wednesday’s meeting the discussion will focus on a ...

Protected areas and other biodiversity hotspots across Southeast Asia are increasingly under threat from expanding rubber plantations, with Cambodia at risk of losing more ecologically important land than any of its neighbours, a recent study reports. According to the study, if current trends continue, Cambodia stands ...

The government is seeking to develop ways of increasing the benefit felt by Cambodia from economic corridors opened throughout the Greater Mekong Subregion as part of ASEAN integration, an official has said. The economic corridors are intended to spur economic integration in ASEAN and boost infrastructure ...

The World Bank has approved a project that aims to improve National Road No. 13 as part of efforts to create better conditions for people living along and using this primary corridor. The bank made the announcement last week after its executive directors agreed to ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Luang Prabang, Laos’ first World Heritage listed site, was voted ‘Best City’ by readers of the UK’s Wanderlust travel magazine earlier this year.Director of the province’s Information, Culture and Tourism Department, Mr Soulithip Norkhunphonh, told Vientiane Times yesterday that the northern ...

VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Widespread fake news and disinformation circulated on social media has threatened security and democracy and undermined social order, a workshop has heard.In his opening remarks at the event, Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr Savankhone Razmountry, told Lao and ...

Lawmakers will debate 13 draft laws at the upcoming 5th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly (NA)’s 8th Legislature, making further progress on the path to building Laos as a state ruled by law. Scheduled to take place from June 5-28, the debate session, which ...