National government

A progressive budgeting policy used by the Education Ministry has overloaded local administrators with paperwork for which they often lack the expertise, according to a new report, which found the system was less efficient in 2014 than the year before. Released by the NGO Forum, and ...

Outside of Nai Soi village in northern Thailand, more than 14,000 refugees from Kayah State debate elections going on just across the border. While there will be no voting for those in Thailand’s largest refugee camp – most lack ID cards – that doesn’t mean they ...

Twelve Pacific rim countries sealed the deal late 5 October (Thailand time) to create the world’s largest free trade area, with implications for Thailand and for world trade in the 21st century. Working around the clock for days past their deadline, haggard trade ministers announced they reached ...

Laos has confirmed its readiness to host the 9th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication in Vientiane from 13-17 October. Speaking at a press conference on 6 October on preparations for the meeting, Deputy Minister to the Government Office and Vice Chairman of the National ...

The seeds of China and Vietnam’s bloody rivalry for influence in Cambodia were already apparent to foreign observers in the weeks and months after the April 1975 fall of Phnom Penh, Australian diplomatic cables given last month to the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) show. Born ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy promised supporters in Kampong Cham province on 3 October that if his party comes to power, civil servants and soldiers can be certain that they will keep their jobs, and will be given raises. Speaking to hundreds of supporters in Srei Santhor district, ...

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attended the opening ceremony of the southern Dong Nai province’s party congress on 29 September. The PM praised the province’s accomplishments over the last five years and urged Dong Nai to become a leading force in the country’s modernisation and socio-economic ...

No breakthrough was reported on 28 September as leaders of 18 of Myanmar’s armed ethnic groups failed to resolve differences over how many would sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement with the government next month. Pu Zing Cung, general secretary of the Chin National Front and a member ...

Leaders of some 20 ethnic armed groups from Myanmar are due to meet in Chiang Mai today amid divisions over whether to sign a nationwide ceasefire agreement with the government.  Pu Zing Cung, general secretary of the Chin National Front and a member of the groups’ ...

Laos is ready to play the role of ASEAN chair and host the 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits which will be held back-to-back in Vientiane next year. Lao Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alounkeo Kittikhoun and Malaysian ambassador Than Tai Hing co-chaired an Asean Consultative Meeting (ACM) in ...