Social development
The poor
Call for more Australian leadership as hunger rises in South-East Asia
Efforts to eradicate hunger are stalling within the Asia Pacific, with almost 500 million people in the region lacking access to sufficient food.[]”However, in the last one or two years, it’s countries in South-East Asia, particularly in the Mekong region being Myanmar and Thailand and ...
Brett Worthington
ADB, Lao PDR sign agreement to enhance sanitary, phytosanitary management systems
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) signed an agreement on 13 November for a $10 million grant as additional financing for a project that will enhance Lao PDR’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) capacity, and improve ...
The FINANCIAL Reporter
In search of Arabica in Vietnam's war-scarred soil
Arabica could hold the key to escaping poverty for farmers in Vietnam’s province Quang Tri, but is it a sustainable option?[] The Mekong Institute (MI), an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable economic and social development in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, came up with an initiative to ...
Bao Yen
Is sustainable development along the Mekong possible?
[] Sustainable development of the Mekong basin is too important to be persistently ignored. Approximately 284 million people, including around 400 ethno-linguistic groupings, live on the Mekong River. A majority of Mekong communities are considered “primary producers,” as they rely on the river’s ecosystems for their survival through ...
Linh Tong
Poverty Decreases, But Rural Areas Slower to Develop: Report
The number of people in Myanmar living in poverty has decreased from 32 percent of the population in 2004 to 19 percent in 2015, according to a recent report. The World Bank and the Ministry of Planning and Finance analyzed data on living conditions from ...
Thu Thu Aung and Rik Glauert
Laos striving to graduate from LDC status, Asian editors told
The government is pursuing its mission to remove Laos from Least Developed Country (LDC) status by 2020 and become an upper middle income country by 2030, a senior government official told Asia News Network (ANN) editors last week.Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr ...
APEC looks at responsible use of resources for food production
APEC officials and leaders of agricultural businesses in the region met on Thursday to discuss responsible use of resources that will ensure long-term food production and decent living standards for everyone.Keep reading ...
Deadly diet: Thai doctors battle cancer-causing fish dish
It was not until he got to medical school that Narong Khuntikeo finally discovered what caused the liver cancer that took both of his parents’ lives – their lunch.Like millions of Thais across the rural northeast, his family regularly ate koi pla – a local ...
Remote communities benefiting from poverty reduction efforts
World Bank and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) recently agreed to provide funds to support Laos in implementing the third phase of a programme involving 350 infrastructure improvement projects. The third phase of the Poverty Reduction Fund (PRF) programme, which is running from 2017-2019, is ...
China injects 40 billion kip into poverty reduction
Sangthong and LuangPrabang district residents will have better lives after the Chinese government granted over 40 billion kip (33.3 million CNY) to implement the Laos-China Poverty Alleviation Pilot Project. The first time project aims to reduce poverty in rural areas and will be implemented in the ...
