Economy and commerce

The central province of Quảng Nam should become a rapid, sustainable and comprehensive development model, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc told the province’s leaders in a meeting on September 28 in Hà Nội. The PM asked the province to work with neighbouring Đà Nẵng City and Quảng ...

Thailand’s ranking in the Global Competitiveness Index 2016-17 has dipped two places to 34th from last year. The report is an annual assessment of the factors driving productivity and prosperity in 138 countries. The degree to which economies are open to international trade in goods ...

The Asian Development Bank has slightly revised up its forecast for Thailand’s 2016 economic growth from 3 per cent to 3.2 per cent, praising the country’s investment in infrastructure. “Government infrastructure investment is a key contributor to growth in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand,” ...

Vietnam will step up improving the investment climate and hopes to see Japanese firms increase investments in agriculture in the coming time, a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development official said. General Director of the MARD’s Department of International Cooperation Tran Kim Long delivered the message ...

The government cabinet has been exploring ways to better facilitate and promote investment in Special Economic Zones, after many zones have been set up in the provinces and in Vientiane. The cabinet on September 26 convened an extraordinary meeting and discussed a draft of the Law on ...

Deals would put the majority of seeds, chemicals and GM traits in the hands of three companies, deepening poverty for small-scale farmers. When an Indian farmer plants his cotton crop, there’s at least a 75% chance the seeds have been been bought from a company owned ...

Myanmar’s leading garment industry body has been buoyed by the lifting of sanctions it hopes will see a return to the glory days for the sector, when in the early 2000s a majority of country’s garments were shipped to the US. Speaking at a manufacturing trade ...

The government has allocated almost 5 billion kip for authorities to finance work in the payment of compensation to those who will lose land when the Laos-China railway is built. However, the actual payments will be carried out by the joint venture company that is ...

The state-owned bank entrusted with extending $27 million in emergency loans to millers to purchase rice paddy has marginally lowered the interest rate on these conditional loans in an effort to shorten some of the strings attached. The Rural Development Bank announced late on September 25 that ...

Transparency and environmental groups are calling on the Anti-Corruption Unit to investigate potential smuggling in the sand-dredging industry after a gaping $750 million discrepancy was discovered between Cambodia’s documented sand exports and Singapore’s imports. On the UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database, Cambodia reported exporting $5.5 million ...