Economy and commerce
Investment
Farmers choose solar farm over endangered bird
When given a choice between renewable energy and wildlife conservation, people in Samut Sakhon have opted for a solar farm for financial reasons. Tractors and trucks loaded with soil were seen busily working in a field yesterday to fill a salt pan in Ban Khok ...
Taiwanese firms rush Vietnamese footwear sector
Taiwanese firms are increasing capital investment in the Vietnamese footwear sector to benefit from Vietnam’s new free trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the EU-Vietnam FTA, and the Vietnam-Korea FTA. On July 25, Taiwanese-owned Chinli My Phuoc One Member Co., Ltd. held the ground-breaking ceremony of ...
SEZs lure 39 projects worth B7bn
Investment is starting to flow into the government’s planned special economic zones with 39 projects worth 7.2 billion baht applying for promotional privileges from the Board of Investment. The Special Economic Zone Policy Committee, chaired by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, on 27 July acknowledged the investment ...
Laos, Singapore vow to enhance cooperation
Laos and Singapore are pledging to work together to promote trade and investment between the two countries after their trade volume climbed to US$72.5 million in 2015. As of 2016, investment from Singapore stood at US$187 million, ranking the country in eleventh place among all foreign ...
Lao PM calls for ASEAN nations to remain united
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith has called for ASEAN nations to remain united, play a stronger role within the region, and stay true to ASEAN’s principles. Mr Thongloun made the call during his opening remarks at the 49th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Vientiane on 24 ...
Multi-billion dollar projects, approved in 'red-carpet' period, lose licenses
After joining WTO, Vietnam laid the red carpet out to welcome foreign investors with huge investment projects worth billions of dollars. But some of these projects never started or have lost licenses. Ca Na was one of the projects in the ‘FDI golden age’ when ...
AMM49 voices concern about recent complicated situation in East Sea
The 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting took place in Laos’s capital city of Vientiane on July 24 with the participation of 10 Foreign Ministers from ASEAN member countries and the ASEAN Secretary General. The Vietnamese delegation to the meeting was led by Deputy Prime Minister and ...
Myitsone and the failure of China’s ‘anti-ethno-politics’ approach
Northern Myanmar’s Myitsone mega-project failed because its Chinese proponents systematically dismissed Kachin and Burmese nationalism. The Chinese hydropower developers’ strategy was what I call “anti-ethno-politics”: when the state, NGOs, businesses, or other actors try to depoliticise sensitive questions about how their own activities clash with ...
Concerns raised over a new super state agency
Instead of speeding up the equitisation process, Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment has stirred up controversy with proposal to set up another unit to supervise and manage state capital and assets in state-owned corporations. This super unit will directly manage the capital at 30 state-owned corporations ...
Malaysia, Singapore team up on bullet-train project
Malaysia and Singapore signed an agreement on 18 July to build an ambitious high-speed rail link touted as a first for Southeast Asia that will knit the historically fractious neighbours more closely together. Authorities have yet to provide cost projections, but analyst estimates have been as high ...
