Government

The government’s mobile task force teams, which aimed to clamp down on the country’s thriving illegal border trade, have been abolished, the Ministry of Commerce announced on 30 December. “All teams will stop, starting from today,” Than Win, the director of the Ministry of Commerce, told ...

Vietnam has delayed a new social insurance policy that aims to increase contributions to the country’s pension fund, following complaints from both businesses and workers.    The policy, originally slated to take effect this January, is now waiting for further instructions from the labor ministry and relevant ...

Significant changes are not expected with the formal launch of the ASEAN Community on 31 December as 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations still need more time to work out and adjust key issues for integration under the community’s three pillars: the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ...

Cambodia’s Labour Minister Ith Samheng made a lengthy defence of the draft trade union law on 30 December, claiming it would stabilise the Kingdom’s troubled labour relations, even as he pledged to find the “mastermind” behind recent protests in the Svay Rieng town of Bavet. Speaking ...

The year of 2016 will be the “Year of Laos” as the country takes the ASEAN chairmanship, US President Barack Obama visits the nation and the ruling party holds its 10th congress to select a new leadership. Obama’s decision to visit Laos next year to attend the ASEAN Summit ...

A Vietnamese high-ranking delegation led by Minister of Defence General Phung Quang Thanh is on a friendship visit to Laos from 25-26 December at the invitation of Lao Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Sengnouane Xayalath. During its stay, the Vietnamese delegation is set to have talks ...

Civil society and government representatives met at the Royal University of Phnom Penh on 24 December to discuss how both sides can cooperate to formulate climate change policies that fulfill Cambodia’s treaty obligations in the wake of the historic climate accord reached in Paris earlier this ...

Leader of ASEAN countries have accepted US President Barack Obama’s invitation for a summit in California in the first half of 2016, the White House National Security Council told the media on 23 December. A date for the summit was not provided, though Japan’s Kyodo news ...

Individual ministries will not be called to parliament to explain their budget requests for 2016-17 until debate begins in January in an effort to speed up the approval process, Myanmar MPs were told on 23 December. Parliamentarians arrived yesterday expecting to hear representatives from the ministries ...

Upper- and middle income people need to come out and vote if they want to stop parties pitching populist policies to the poor from regaining office, says Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. They should decide what they want at the polls or someone else would do that for ...