The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has partnered with Google to fight plastic pollution in the Mekong River, leveraging citizen science and machine learning to understand the magnitude of the problem impacting the longest river in Southeast Asia. Aided by technical advisory support from Google, the CounterMEASURE ...

The 89th Mekong River joint patrol led by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand was launched Tuesday in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. In a bid to safeguard the security and stability along the Mekong River, the four countries will carry out joint patrols, visits, inspections and safety ...

China has notified downstream neighbours it is holding back the Mekong River flow at a hydropower dam on the waterway’s upper reaches for 20 days, as part of a new data-sharing pact, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and Thailand said on Wednesday. The statements came a ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn and Wang Wentian, Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia are scheduled to sign the 7.2-million agreement on the cooperation projects of the Mekong-Lancang Cooperation Special Fund at the ministry today, according to the Foreign Affairs Ministry statement. The statement said that under the ...

“We bury a GPS tracker in the wood. We call them rabbits,” says Cheewapap Cheewatham, director of Thailand’s Forest Protection and Fire Control Bureau, part of the forestry department. He tells China Dialogue that they used to just impound as evidence cut rosewood they found ...

As construction on the Don Sahong dam near the Cambodia-Laos border passes its halfway point, activists and locals are increasingly concerned over the disappearance of Irawaddy dolphins and incidences of illness they suspect are caused by the muddied water. “The waters downstream in Cambodia have ...

Around 15 per cent of Việt Nam’s population – approximately 13.5 million ­people – suffer from 10 of the more common mental disorders, reveal statistics released on November 29. Around 2.8 per cent of Vietnamese live with depression, 2.6 per cent suffer from anxiety disorder, ...

A locust swarm from China has been destroying bamboo forests and corn fields in Dien Bien Province in northern Vietnam since last week. The yellow-spined bamboo locust (Ceracris kiangsu) swarm, which has an estimated 100-400 individuals per square meter, devoured bamboo leaves in 20 ha of ...

CFI has revealed the 12 winning projects, 7 of which from the Lower Mekong Countries, for their competition to receive #DataJournalism training in #ASEAN countries. Congratulations!Below are the winning organisations:** Cambodia **Cambodian Center for Independent Media Thmey Thmey News** Thailand **Prachatham ประชาธรรม SEAPA – Southeast Asian Press ...

Open Development Mekong explores the dynamics of Foreign Investment in the Lower Mekong Region. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a key driver of economic growth in the Lower Mekong Countries (LMCs) — Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Attracting significant global interest, the region saw ...

The following is the gist of the Tokyo Strategy 2018 for Mekong-Japan Cooperation adopted at a meeting of the leaders of Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam on Tuesday. Japanese and Mekong leaders: — elevate Japan-Mekong cooperation to “strategic partnership.” — identify “vibrant and effective” connectivity, people-centered ...

One night two years ago, Lam Thi Le and Nguyen Van Thuong heard loud cracks coming from their neighbours’ riverfront home. The neighbours left, and a day later half of their house collapsed into the broad Tien River as the land beneath it slid away. The ...

A recently published report by Eyes on Earth, Inc. has pointed the finger at Chinese dams holding back water as having significantly contributed to the major drought impacting the Mekong River in Southeast Asia. The drought’s effects have been felt by millions and hamper efforts to ...

Inertia and the inherent tone-deafness of an authoritarian regime have set Vietnam on a course toward economic and political disaster. It is not too late, however, for the ruling party’s top leaders, the Politburo, to disavow support for state-owned PetroVietnam’s plans to build a huge ...

Between the years of 1990 and 2015, Cambodia saw the region’s highest rate of improvement in the UN’s Human Development Index, a metric that tracks wellbeing, though the country’s overall score remains well below the average for countries in East Asia and the Pacific, a ...

Since the establishment of the Shenzhen SEZ in China during the 1980s, Special Economic Zones (SEZs) as a development model have grown in popularity in Asia, alongside official development aid. SEZs have been promoted as being a resilient form of economic development, with the potential ...

Foreign Investment ...

The Mekong River carves a vast aquatic lifeline through Asia. Rising in glacial streams high in the Tibetan plateau, the river morphs as it tumbles south through rocky ravines, steep-sided valleys and expansive flooded forests to the South China Sea. Its influence is immense: over ...

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Joint Patrol and Law Enforcement initiative on the Mekong River. In December 2011, security authorities in China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand launched the initiative after around 8 gunmen stormed two Chinese vessels and killed thirteen sailors. In today’s ...

The Phnom Penh-Bavet Highway which will ultimately link the Cambodian and Vietnamese capital cities The 2022 ASEAN summit took place at the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, this past weekend, with China as an official guest. At the event, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced Beijing’s approval of Chinese investment ...