Aid and development
Vietnam, Netherlands expected to set up comprehensive partnership
Vietnam and the Netherlands are expected to announce the elevation of bilateral ties to a comprehensive partnership during an official visit to Vietnam on April 9 by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Within multilateral frameworks, the two countries have cooperated and supported each other’s initiatives, especially ...
Talks on trade, crime seek to achieve development goals
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha urged Asean members on Wednesday to maintain a good balance between promoting cross-border trade and suppressing transnational crime, which he said holds the key to meeting the region’s sustainable development goals. He made the remark during a speech at Wednesday’s opening of the ...
New MRC Secretariat CEO lists top priorities for Mekong basin
Mekong River Commission Secretariat CEO An Pich Hatda is the first Cambodian to hold the position. Appointed by the MRC Ministerial Council last year, Mr Pich Hatda says he wants to bring the interest of every single member country to the table while elevating the MRC Secretariat’s ...
Sustaining the heartbeat of the Mekong Basin
The Mekong has another point of origin: the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia. Each year life springs from the lake, mostly in the form of a massive fish population that migrates to the far reaches of the Mekong system both upstream and downstream. This annual ...
Brian Eyler, Courtney Weatherby
ASU creates network of young scientists in Southeast Asia
Arizona State University is preparing young scientists to improve environmental sustainability, health and economic development through social entrepreneurship. Last year, the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering partnered with the U.S. Department of State to launch the Lower Mekong Initiative Young Scientist Program. The program’s overarching goal is to ...
UK to help build flood resilience in Vietnam
The effects of climate change pose a direct threat to lives and livelihoods of people living in Vietnam, from death and injury to damaged or destroyed homes, businesses, transport links, power supplies and agricultural land. So academics from the University of Southampton, the University of ...
The Hidden Environmental Toll of Mining the World’s Sand
By far the largest mining endeavor globally is digging up sand, mainly for the concrete that goes into buildings. But this little-noticed and largely unregulated activity has serious costs — damaging rivers, wreaking havoc on coastal ecosystems, and even wiping away entire islands. In Cambodia, researching ...
Brexit could put 1.7 million people around globe into extreme poverty
It’s a long way from Whitehall and Brussels, but a study has found that the developing country that will be hardest hit by Brexit is the south-east Asian nation of Cambodia. With the deadline to reach a Brexit agreement looming in March, much attention has been given to ...
World Bank Group Announces $50 billion over Five Years for Climate Adaptation and Resilience
The World Bank Group today launched its Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. Under the plan, the World Bank Group will ramp up direct adaptation climate finance to reach $50 billion over FY21–25. This financing level—an average of $10 billion a year—is more ...
How China’s Big Overseas Initiative Threatens Global Climate Progress
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a colossal infrastructure plan that could transform the economies of nations around the world. But with its focus on coal-fired power plants, the effort could obliterate any chance of reducing emissions and tip the world into catastrophic climate change. Read ...
