BY KAENG E-KHIEW Waterfall in northeastern Buntrik-Yod Mon Wildlife Sanctuary a mature male elephant lay dead, with traces of a highly volatile bullet left in its mouth and its bud. Another AK47 bullet was found buried in its ribs. A check of camera traps installed one ...

Foreign Investment ...

Gender inequality underscores the lives of women all over the world. At the Open Development Initiative, we wanted to understand how this impacted women in the Mekong countries of Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV) in their access to open data. In ...

The Open Development Initiative (ODI) first began working with our constituents on data literacy in 2019, with a 3-month data literacy programme for journalists in Myanmar. Since then we have localized our Data Literacy Curriculum, adapted from the World Bank Certificate Program, to meet the ...

The ten member states of ASEAN aspire to “One Vision, One Identity, One Community.” Their foreign ministers meeting in Laos this July demonstrated again how far the distance is between goal and reality. Like the European Union, the regional organization of Southeast Asia is pulled ...

The 11-day Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) exhibition came to an end successfully here on Saturday, attracting approximately 15,000 visitors, an organizer said. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen as well as leaders of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar visited the ...

China on Monday proposed six programs which will benefit the Lancang-Mekong countries aside from China, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, including cooperation plans in agriculture, water resources, digital economy, aerospace, education, and public health, as Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi ...

Japan and the five Southeast Asian countries bordering the Mekong River adopted a blueprint on 24 August to boost industrialization in the subregion. The blueprint, known as “The Mekong Industrial Development Vision,” got the thumbs-up during a meeting between Japan’s Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry Yoichi ...

Beijing’s islands-building in the South China Sea and their militarisation, replete with surface-to-air missiles, is near complete. With guile, threat, and coercion, China can now seize control of one of the main transport arteries of Southeast Asia, making a mockery of international laws and norms. ...

No.2 Friendship Bridge will be opened in first week of April, according to the sources. The new Bridge is aimed at facilitating transport of people and goods and vehicle travel among the six member countries of the Greater Mekong sub-region: Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and ...

The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries have made stunning progress over the past quarter century. Once plagued by poverty, they are now economic success stories. The GMS Economic Cooperation Program (GECP) has contributed significantly to this transformation. Since it was established in 1992 as a ...

Environmental activists will petition the Administrative Court Thursday to help in their protest against the new Pak Beng dam project on the Mekong River in Laos, which could bring both ecological and economic impacts to the region. They want the court to encourage state agencies, ...

The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) marked its third anniversary last week with the announcement that China’s trade with the five Mekong member countries – Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam – has reached over US$260 billion for the period, highlighting the overarching role China plays in ...

“We are the worst, even when compared to Laos or Vietnam,” said Kulachada Chaipipat, campaign manager at the Southeast Asia Press Alliance. “Those two countries have seen stagnant, bad situations, but Thailand is going down.” Speaking on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on ...

A bold Cambodian plan to secure World Heritage status along their stretch of the Mekong, where the free-flowing river has sustained some of the world’s greatest biodiversity, could provide much-needed respite to a river in danger of dying from dams and over-exploitation, experts say. In Phnom Penh, the Environment ...

A new study by TRAFFIC, a group that monitors the illegal trade in wildlife, has found thousands of animal parts and products – from pangolin scales to ivory and bear bile – for sale in five countries in mainland Southeast Asia, underlining the region’s struggle ...

The headwaters of the Mekong River are located on the Tibetan plateau in China. The 4,350 kilometre-long river flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Thailand is seeking to establish a regional fund with its riparian neighbours. The fund is intended to provide capital ...

The collapse of the Xepian-Xe Nam hydropower dam in Sanamxay district of Attapeu Province, Lao PDR on July 23 is a major tragedy that took the lives of at least 34 Laotians, with at least 100 more still missing and thousands displaced. Some 50 days on, ...

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) said on Monday that the river’s water level in Kratie province is expected to decrease by 50cm to 1.5m from April 12-19, as the outflow from China’s Jinghong hydropower station is gradually reduced by half to accommodate the Dai ethnic ...

The Annual Country Reviews by Mekong Land Research Forum reflect upon current land issues in the Mekong Region, and has been produced for researchers, practitioners and policy advocates operating in the field. Specialists have been selected from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to briefly ...