Economy and commerce
Investment
Thailand grapples with allowing more Chinese landowners
Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades, but foreign land ownership has long been restricted. Foreigners can own no more than 49% of any condominium development and are restricted from owning most freehold estates. Yet Thailand is keen to attract ...
PREM SINGH GILL
Money flows: Who's investing in Laos, and what problems do they present?
A nation disadvantaged by geography, Laos has turned to intense infrastructural development and foreign direct investments to accelerate economic growth. As the landlocked nation opens its doors to foreign money, who is it inviting, and what troubles lay ahead? Once an ancient kingdom and a hub ...
Pei Ying Loh & Zenn Wong
Investment, stronger agricultural exports drive economic growth
Laos’ economy is projected to grow 3.4 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2023, due to the country’s investments to boost exports, according to the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2022 released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday. “Growth in 2022 and 2023 will ...
Somsack Pongkhao
Vietnam promotes Can Tho to special city, focusing on Mekong Delta
Vietnam is granting Can Tho, on the Mekong Delta, a special status to draw investment amid China’s growing presence in the country and the South China Sea. The National Assembly approved the plan to promote the southern city on Tuesday. With this resolution, Hanoi will grant ...
TOMOYA ONISHI, Nikkei staff writer
Cambodia’s updated investment law gives incentives to green business
A recently promulgated update to a 2003 law on investment is redefining incentives for more than a dozen business sectors. This is only the Kingdom’s second investment law and it expands the range of environmentally focused organisations eligible for incentives. The list of eligible business sectors ...
ANTON L. DELGADO
Laos pushes into crypto as it authorises mining and trading
Laos has authorised the mining and trading of cryptocurrencies, in a policy shift by the debt-laden south-east Asian nation that positions it to profit from the crackdown on digital currency mining in China. Analysts said the move was a logical step for the landlocked, communist-ruled country ...
John Reed
Delta Offshore Energy's Vietnam Project Gets Environmental Approval
Delta Offshore Energy said Tuesday it had secured the environmental approval for the LNG to Power Project, the 3.2 GW power plant, and LNG Terminal in Bac Lieu, Vietnam. “Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is an extremely important key regulatory milestone towards the financial close and validates ...
China Opens Rail Line, Trade Route to Indian Ocean Through Myanmar
China last month inaugurated a new trade route via ship, road and rail running through Myanmar in keeping with Beijing’s dogged building spree across the Southeast Asian country to reach the Indian Ocean and points west. Analysts say it is one more strand in the ever-expanding ...
Zsombor Peter
Thailand BOI Approves Measures to Support Carbon Reduction
The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) at a meeting today approved incentives to encourage companies to reduce greenhouse gas emission as well as an enhanced scheme for electric vehicles and measures to mitigate COVID-19 impacts and support local vaccine development, Ms Duangjai Asawachintachit, Secretary General of the BOI, ...
Thailand Board of Investment
Lao government, ethnic communities clash over development projects
New reports of Lao military operations against ethnic Hmong communities suggest the government is tightening its control over areas targeted for development and investment. According to a Radio Free Asia report on April 1, Lao military forces have repeatedly attacked Hmong living around Phou Bia mountain in Xaysomboun province, ...
Editorial