Aid and development
Bilateral development assistance
Lower Mekong nations collaborate on flood response during exercise in Laos
Dealing with and attempting to mitigate disaster scenarios is why experts, both military and civilian, from six nations were in the capital of Laos participating in the 2015 Lower Mekong Initiative Disaster Relief Exercise and Exchange. The LMI DREE is an annual civil-military disaster preparedness and ...
Japan pledges patrol vessels, loans to Vietnam
Japan pledges to provide Vietnam with 200 million yen (US$1.6 million) in non-refundable aid to buy Japanese used patrol ships for its maritime safety in the 2015 fiscal year, according to a joint statement issued on 15 September following Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s ...
Japan pledges 100bn yen in loans for Vietnam
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on 15 September that his country will extend 100 billion yen ($835 million) in loans for Vietnam to boost the Southeast Asian economy’s infrastructural development, as Tokyo and Hanoi aim to strengthen ties on the economic and security fronts. Keep reading ...
Korea extends support to Laos for ASEAN integration
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) will provide more than US$13 million (more than 104 billion kip) in assistance to Laos next year in various sectors of development. KOICA President Kim Young-Mok announced the support when he paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong ...
Parliament approves more than $300m in soft loans
The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw on 26 August gave the green light to US$305 million in new development loans focused on improving electricity supply, water supply and a major highway. MPs approved a $240 million loan from the Asian Development Bank, $20 million from the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund ...
New strategy for Japan, Mekong cooperation
Japan and four Southeast Asian nations along the Mekong River Basin – Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand – have approved a plan to speed up industrial development in the region. Keep reading ...
In Myanmar, doing aid better
Around the world, the way foreign aid works is coming under wider scrutiny. Criticisms of an increasingly privatized international aid “industry” include claims that many of its approaches are too top-down, inflexible and ineffective. Reformers also question the relationships between large international aid organizations and their ...
Vietnam to seek additional loan for Chinese-built Hanoi elevated railway
The government has decided to seek an additional loan from the Chinese government for a Chinese-built elevated railway project in Hanoi that is becoming infamous for slow progress and ballooning costs. Keep reading ...
First HIV/AIDS treatment centre opens in Laos
The first infectious disease ward, which shall include the first HIV/AIDS treatment centre in Laos, opened yesterday in Vientiane, aiming to improve the medical environment to treat infectious disease patients including those with HIV. The centre received financial support from the government of Japan. The new facility ...
The real importance of Japan’s new strategy for the Mekong
On July 4, the leaders of Japan and the five countries in the Mekong subregion – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam – convened for the Seventh Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo. True to form, much of the media focus was on the dollar amount that Japan ...
