China aims to develop border area with Laos
China has announced that it will invest US$31.4 billion in the Mengla economic zone in Yunnan province of the country, which shares a border with Lunag Namtha and Phongsaly provinces in northern Laos. The investment will cover more than 240 projects in such fields as transportation, ...
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam may face severe drought
Severe to extreme drought is expected to hit the four lower Mekong River Basin countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam from now until January, threatening agricultural production, experts warned Tuesday. The Mekong River Commission, in a statement, said the drought has so far brought the ...
Where Have All the Mekong River’s Fish Gone?
The Mekong was once a river teeming with fish, providing food security for millions of poor farmers as well urban centers. These days, that river of abundance has disappeared, replaced by forlorn fishers who say they’re lucky if they can secure a catch at all, ...
Tom Fawthrop
Upgrade country’s statistics standards to make most of cooperation efforts, official says
Laos will have difficulties in the implementation of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda as well as pushing the country to graduate from Least Developed Countries (LDC) by 2020 without accurate and timely statistics, a government official has stated.Addressing a statistics seminar in ...
Missing Thai paramotor flyer safe in Laos
A Thai paramotor flyer missing since he strayed across the border into Laos on 26 December is safe in Xayaboury province and expected to be sent back home in a day or two, Phusang district chief Waradisorn Onnuch said on 28 December. Keep reading ...
New Lao-Thai centre to help tackle trafficking
Thailand and Laos have decided to set up a social development centre to help tackle human trafficking, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said on 26 September. After the 20th Thai-Lao Joint Commission meeting at a Chiang Rai hotel, Don told reporters that he had signed a memorandum ...
Modern machinery, technical skills needed to improve wood processing
Modern machines and technical skills are required to enhance the competitiveness of the Lao timber processing industry in line with other countries in the region. Chairman of the Okawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Japan, Mr Yuji Sonoda made the observation during an interview with Vientiane ...
Public debt of Laos set to increase due to pandemic effect
The public debt of Laos may increase to as much as 65 to 68 per cent of GDP in 2020 following a sharp fall in national revenue collection alongside an increase in loans due to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, according to a government official. Revenue collection ...
Thai-Lao duty-free mall proposed for Vientiane
A group of Thai and Lao business people have announced a plan to spend 10 billion baht to develop a large shopping and hotel complex in Vientiane in order to cash in on opportunities arising from the coming from the coming Asean Economic Community. The massive ...
Laos' debt woes worsen as bills for China-funded dams loom
COVID-19 has rattled Laos’ debut in selling a U.S. dollar bond in international markets, adding pressure on a country whose “Wild West of dam building” splurge has put it in a precarious repayment situation, especially in regard to China, its leading lender. Sources familiar with the ...
MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
Thai court holds hope for transboundary justice in the Mekong
The closely watched lawsuit filed by Thai Mekong communities against the Xayaburi Dam’s power purchase agreement (PPA) has reached a critical juncture: the final day that the Administrative Court will accept evidence into the case. It has been just over a year since the Thai Supreme Administrative ...
Thailand, Laos target $8 bn in trade
Thailand and Laos are set to boost bilateral trade to US$8 billion (Bt250 billion) in the next three years, driven mainly by closer cooperation under Asean integration and the setting up of special economic zones. According to the Thai Commerce Ministry, Thai-Laotian bilateral trade rose by 14.32 ...
Chinese investor rings up majority stake in ETL
China’s Comba Telecom has vowed to provide Lao users with improved service and mobile experiences after it successfully acquired a majority stake in Laos’s ETL Public Company and stepped up its management improvement efforts. The Chinese investor bought a 51 percent stake while the Lao ...
Laos gets more funding to mitigate impact of COVID-19 on education
The Global Partnership for Education is allocating a grant of US$7 million via UNICEF to help respond to and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s education in Laos. According to the UNICEF Laos Office, the grant agreement was signed on Thursday between Deputy ...
Times Reporters
China vows to advance strategic partnership with Laos
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping has expressed his willingness to advance the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with Laos, a Chinese envoy said on 26 January. Keep reading ...
Mekong levels to drop due to Jinghong power station testing
Water levels in the Mekong River that traverses Cambodia, Thailand, and Lao PDR are expected to drop due to outflows from China’s Jinghong hydropower station, which would be decreased by more than 50 per cent for dam equipment testing from January 1-4, the Mekong River ...
Ry Sochan
Support RECOFTC Lao PDR's Facebook Campaign for Lao Tree Planting Day on 1 June and World Environment Day on 5 June 2020
Did you know trees can mitigate climate change? Celebrate Lao Tree Planting Day on 1 June and World Environment Day on 5 June 2020! Share your favourite tree and why and be entered to win a RECOFTC shirt and notebook by following these rules: – Like ...
Another Lao Arrested For Criticism of Government on Social Media
A Lao man who had complained about corruption in the communist-run country on social media was arrested at his home in southern Laos last week and is being questioned in jail about links to “an anti-government group of overseas Laotians,” police sources told RFA Tuesday. The ...
RFA Lao service, Translated by Sidney Khotpanya and Ounkeo Souksavanh, Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Lao Doctors, Nurses Demand Overtime Pay Owed For Work Containing COVID
Over 800 health-care workers in southern provinces of Laos are calling on authorities to pay them for extra hours worked this year in hospitals and quarantine centers while trying to control the spread of coronavirus, according to sources in the one-party communist state. However, official sources ...
RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Manichanh Phimphachanh. Written in English by Richard Finney
Police interview Lao 'slaves' over trafficking
Thirteen illegal Lao labour immigrants who were rescued from an alleged “slavery farm” in Nakhon Pathom are being treated as witnesses in a suspected human trafficking case. The immigrants, some as young as 15 years old, will not be charged with illegal entry into Thailand because they ...