Government
Budget
Myanmar Central Bank in spotlight over coins
The ire of MPs over the 11.95 percent supplementary budget request from the outgoing government was directed on 3 December toward the Central Bank. While its request for K59.059 billion represents just 2.3 percent of the K2.464 trillion budget proposal, MPs said it was a prime example ...
Yangon government faces transparency call on flyovers
Outspoken independent MP Daw Nyo Nyo Thin has called on the regional government to publicly reveal the true cost of controversial flyover bridge projects before the end of its term. She submitted the proposal at a special meeting of the Yangon Region Hluttaw on 30 November. ...
Assembly passes budget as CNRP boycotts vote
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party passed the government’s $4.3 billion budget for 2016 unopposed on 30 November as Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmakers followed through on a pledge to sit out the National Assembly session if concerns for their members’ safety were not addressed. The CNRP’s 55 ...
UN warns of need to boost immunisation
The United Nations has called for an expansion of immunisation to combat the threat of polio and other preventable diseases, after two cases of a vaccine-derived form of the virus were detected in northern Rakhine State. The World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund said ...
Mekong province seeks $6.7m from government to check coastal erosion
Ca Mau, which once benefited from coastal accretion, is now asking for US$6.7 million from the government to deal with relentless erosion. Vietnam’s southernmost province has a coastline of more than 250 kilometers and the sea has eaten along 80 percent of it, by 50 meters ...
Lao Government blocks funds for rural road repair in favor of ASEAN projects in the capital
Government authorities in cash-strapped Laos are withholding funds urgently needed to repair flood-damaged roads in the country’s provinces, saying that available resources must be spent on improvements in the capital Vientiane ahead of regional summit meetings next year. Provincial public works and transport departments may also ...
Myanmar government drives up budget deficit with additional spending
President U Thein Sein’s outgoing government has submitted a supplementary budget request to parliament of K2.464 trillion (US$1.92 billion) with the defence ministry in line to receive the largest allocation, while health and education spending remain close to the bottom of the list. If approved by ...
Cambodia's budget transparency at all-time low: report
The Cambodian government’s budget transparency score has fallen to its lowest measure on record, according to a recent survey, but officials remain optimistic that the score will improve in the future. Cambodia’s score of eight out of 100 in 2015’s Open Budget Survey put it near ...
Cambodia to revamp porous tax code
The Cambodian government will scrap its poorly regulated and grossly inefficient estimated-tax regime, which covers mostly small enterprises, and bring all businesses in the Kingdom into the fold of its more-stringent “real” tax regime, leaked documents show. In an unpublished addendum to the 2016 national budget ...
Lao Government to negotiate for lower interest-rate rail loan
The Lao Government has entrusted a committee in charge to negotiate with China to lower the interest rate of a loan Laos intends to borrow from China to develop the planned Laos-China rail project. Minister of Public Works and Transport Dr Bounchanh Sinthavong told the recent ...