Science and technology
Myanmar’s Effort to Trace COVID-19 Spread Treads on Sensitive Territory
Myanmar’s second wave of coronavirus may have been triggered by “returnees” from neighboring Bangladesh, who brought the illness back with them when they illegally entered Rakhine state, which is now a COVID-19 hotspot, according to a senior government health official. But other experts say the evidence ...
Moe Myint and Nay Myo Htun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Than Than Win and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Vietnam receives support for smart sensors to combat flooding
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) awarded a $400,000 grant to Griffith University researchers to develop a network of energy-efficient smart sensors that will help Vietnam combat flooding. The project aims to create a web of micro-sensors spread throughout Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City to ...
Samaya Dharmaraj
Thailand slips one place in 2020 GII
Thailand slipped one position to 44th out of 131 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organization, hurt by a shortage of innovators and researchers and poor regulatory processes. “The drop was mainly due to the regulatory environment and ...
SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK
Facebook must walk the talk on Myanmar
Last month, Facebook moved to block a bid by The Gambia in a US court, in which it sought disclosure of posts and communications by members of Myanmar’s military and police. This legal step is related to a case brought by The Gambia before the International ...
Priya Pillai
Facebook joins flood, drought alert efforts on Mekong River
Facebook and the Mekong River Commission (MRC) launched a collaboration initiative Monday to provide early flood alert and drought monitoring information to Mekong nations. The MRC stated it has installed 22 hydrological stations along the main channel in the lower Mekong River basin to monitor and ...
Nguyen Quy
Thailand Makes Its Own Covid-19 Tests to Avoid Import Reliance
Thailand is ramping up domestic production of Covid-19 test kits to avoid a potential shortage, as it prepares for a possible second wave of infections after most businesses and services reopened. “Thailand has always received criticism for testing too few, and that was the case at ...
Phandeeyar’s Chatbot raises awareness of COVID-19 in Myanmar
With over 20 million users in the country, Myanmar netizens often turn to Facebook for all kinds of information – from celebrity gossip to policy announcements for the upcoming elections. Facebook has also become a well-spring of information about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) – particularly since ...
ANDREW KING
Poor, Rural Students in Laos Lack Tech to Learn From Home
COVID-19 has forced Laos to join countries around the world in closing schools and using online distance learning. But rural and urban poor students in the Southeast Asian country not only lack computers and access to the internet — some even live in homes without ...
How new technology is transforming Vietnam's economy
In 1975, Vietnam emerged from its 20-year-long war as one of the poorest nations in the world. Since then, its economy has been transformed — largely thanks to a package of economic and political reforms, designed to engineer growth, that was launched by the government in ...
Sarah Lazarus, CNN
Space Satellite Captures Incredible Views of Rice Fields in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta [Video]
The Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over part of the Mekong Delta – a major rice-producing region in southwest Vietnam. In Vietnam, rice has been a strategic crop for national food security. Vietnam is the fifth largest producer of rice in the world, the majority of ...
ESA - EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY