Science and technology
Science and technology research and development
Southeast Asia’s Data Localization Push is a Double-Edged Sword
With the publication of the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025 (ADM 2025), member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have endeavored to promote the digitalization of the region. In this digital transformation process, data is essential because every interaction in the digital world produces and relies on ...
Xirui Li
Mechanical eyes are ready to watch Southeast Asia’s weather systems
A fleet of unmanned surface vessels numbering in the hundreds could be a key tool in helping Southeast Asia countries adapt and prepare for an increase in the frequency of severe weather. Oceanographer Ruth Patterson of Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia, believes unmanned surface vessels ...
TROY KIPPEN
Cooperation key on Mekong issues
In the coming months, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) will host a unique competition for university students from our four member countries: Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The objective is to see which team can develop the most effective, cost-efficient and sustainable technology to monitor water ...
ANOULAK KITTIKHOUN
Sci-tech application to be promoted to ensure food security
Prioritising resources for the research, application, and transfer of science and technology to diversify food products to ensure nutritional balance and food safety in people’s diet is one of the long-term targets set in the Government’s resolution on ensuring national food security until 2030. The resolution, issued on ...
VNA
Vietnam can’t keep up with its own meteoric digital transformation
Vietnam just marked the 23rd year since the country officially became part of the global internet network, with an ‘Internet Day 2020’ on December 16 that explored the country’s digital journey from post-war backwater enclave to one of the fastest-growing digital economies in Southeast Asia (SEA). The ...
Joe Devanesan
Thailand Brings NASA Air Quality Data Down to Earth
For decades, NASA has used the vantage point of space, combined with airborne and ground-based field campaigns, to decipher the impact of air pollution and help other agencies protect people when unhealthy air threatens the places they live, work, and play. Now, government agencies in Thailand are harnessing the power ...
Molly Porter
Myanmar’s Effort to Trace COVID-19 Spread Treads on Sensitive Territory
Myanmar’s second wave of coronavirus may have been triggered by “returnees” from neighboring Bangladesh, who brought the illness back with them when they illegally entered Rakhine state, which is now a COVID-19 hotspot, according to a senior government health official. But other experts say the evidence ...
Moe Myint and Nay Myo Htun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Than Than Win and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Vietnam receives support for smart sensors to combat flooding
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) awarded a $400,000 grant to Griffith University researchers to develop a network of energy-efficient smart sensors that will help Vietnam combat flooding. The project aims to create a web of micro-sensors spread throughout Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City to ...
Samaya Dharmaraj
Facebook joins flood, drought alert efforts on Mekong River
Facebook and the Mekong River Commission (MRC) launched a collaboration initiative Monday to provide early flood alert and drought monitoring information to Mekong nations. The MRC stated it has installed 22 hydrological stations along the main channel in the lower Mekong River basin to monitor and ...
Nguyen Quy
Thailand Makes Its Own Covid-19 Tests to Avoid Import Reliance
Thailand is ramping up domestic production of Covid-19 test kits to avoid a potential shortage, as it prepares for a possible second wave of infections after most businesses and services reopened. “Thailand has always received criticism for testing too few, and that was the case at ...