Industries
Banks pump billions into deforestation-linked firms in Southeast Asia: study
Banks have financed companies responsible for rainforest destruction in Southeast Asia to the tune of billions of dollars, a study showed on September 6, and called on lenders to stop “fuelling forest crime”. Southeast Asia is home to some of the world’s most diverse rainforests, but ...
Modern machinery, technical skills needed to improve wood processing
Modern machines and technical skills are required to enhance the competitiveness of the Lao timber processing industry in line with other countries in the region. Chairman of the Okawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Japan, Mr Yuji Sonoda made the observation during an interview with Vientiane ...
Credit growth starts to cool off
New data released by Cambodia’s independent credit reporting agency indicate a significant slowdown in the rate of lending during the second quarter of the year, a sign that banking industry experts claim is due to a tightening of lending criteria and less seasonal demand from ...
So long to the Asian sweatshop
For 30 years, the word “sweatshop” has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed ...
Protest threat if dam plan goes to cabinet
A leader of the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation conservation group has vowed to launch a protest if a proposal to approve the Mae Wong dam in Nakhon Sawan goes before cabinet. Sasin Chalermlarp’s comment came as Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chatchai Sarikulya is reportedly seeking to use ...
Mekong Delta region awaits floods
The Mekong Delta, the rice, seafood and fruit granary of the country, is facing landslides and sinking, as it no longer receives enough silt because of limited floodwaters. “We have been living here for several generations and we have never seen such poor floodwaters until the ...
Contractors association bands together with YCDC grievances
Over 500 of Yangon’s licensed building contractors met last week to debate forming an industry association, which will have a long list of policy complaints to take to Yangon City Development Committee. The city’s contractors are banding together partly in anticipation of new YCDC regulations, and ...
Light railway raised yet again at JICA meet
Plans for a light railway system in Phnom Penh were discussed at a meeting between Public Works and Transportation Minister Sun Chanthol and Japanese International Cooperation Agency regional director-general Yasushi Tanaka on September 2. Chanthol confirmed the meeting on September 4 but declined to comment further ...
Hydropower commission probes Myitsone contract
The commission to scrutinise hydropower projects along the Ayeyarwady River has met with the Ministry of Electric Power and Energy to learn more about the contractual agreement with a Chinese state-owned firm underpinning the suspended Myitsone hydropower project in Kachin State. The commission held its second ...
More than a thousand furniture plants ordered to shut down
The government has ordered some 1,154 family-unit furniture plants across the country to shut down their illegal operations, a government spokesman announced on September 1. Additionally, more than 20 wood processing plants located in or near conservation and protected forests areas were also ordered to close ...
