Aid and development
Japan pouring US$17.8 million into Luang Prabang water supply upgrade
The Japanese government is funding a grant aid project worth US$17.8 million to improve the water supply system in Luang Prabang city, under a grant agreement signed in Vientiane on Thursday. The agreement was signed by the Director General of the Department of International Cooperation of ...
Vietnam is powering full steam towards the future
These days, I get nostalgic every time I make a trip to Hanoi. This time around, it was about Vietnam’s street food scene. When I first came to Hanoi in 1986, my favourite eating place was at the corner of Ly Thuong Kiet and Pham ...
Kavi Chongkittavorn
ADB seeks co-financing of Thai projects
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is looking to co-financing deals of mass transit, double-track rail and renewal energy projects with the Thai companies, said Hideaki Iwasaki, the bank’s country director in the Kingdom. He said Thai government is in a strong fiscal position and has not borrowed much ...
Thai Belt and Road project bumps into finance and liability issues
Thailand’s government is delaying China’s ambitious high-speed railway project in the country as questions over financing and liabilities of the $9.9 billion infrastructure initiative remain unresolved. Sources within Thailand’s transport sector confirmed to the Nikkei Asian Review that behind-the-scenes negotiations between Bangkok and Beijing over the ...
Marwaan Macan-Markar
National conference on sustainable development held
The National Conference on Sustainable Development 2019 took place in Hanoi on September 12 under theme “For a Decade of More Sustainable Development”, gathering leaders of the Government, ministries, sectors, localities, associations, and businesses. The event aimed to seek practical and effective measures to develop the ...
Myanmar to use US$1 billion loan for infrastructure projects
Economic development, agriculture, electricity, and infrastructure projects will be the focus of a framework for loans between South Korea and Myanmar. On September 3, Union Minister for Investment and Foreign Economic Relations U Thaung Tun and South Korea’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Ms Kang Kyung-wha signed ...
Thiha Ko Ko
China’s hegemonic choice in the Mekong region
If you are the world’s second-largest power, what do you dream about? How do you go about making this dream come true? Put bluntly, the Mekong River region represents a crucial testing ground for Beijing’s mid- to long-term ambitions — not acknowledged officially — to become ...
Sebastian Biba
Vietnam to build $1.3 billion expressway in Mekong Delta
A state-owned construction company is planning to build a 155-km (96-mile) expressway through the Mekong Delta using ODA and public funds. The Cuu Long Corporation for Investment Development and Project Management of Infrastructure (Cuu Long CIPM) has worked with authorities in the delta’s Can Tho City ...
Cuu Long
Laos, S. Korea to strengthen close ties
President Bounnhang Vorachit and his counterpart President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in met for important talks in Vientiane on Thursday, when they reaffirmed their strong commitment to enhancing the two countries’ relations and expanding cooperation. The meeting of the top Lao and South ...
Asia Pacific Climate Week gets underway in Bangkok against backdrop of damaging floods in northern Thailand
The Asia Pacific Climate Week got underway in Bangkok today, aimed at raising global ambition and intended to “grasp the many opportunities of climate action and to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, which are becoming increasingly costly for the region,” a UN press ...