Social development

Thailand has been transitioning to a service-based economy, which accounts for just over half of GDP, and universities are being urged to enhance the capacity of new graduates to meet changing market demand.  Bangkok University has noted this changing trend and is grooming students to serve ...

Packaging for cigarettes made in Myanmar will soon bear photos and text cautioning against the deleterious health effects of consuming tobacco products, Health Minister U Than Aung has said. “We have drawn up a notification to include health warnings in pictures and text covering 75 percent ...

Myanmar’s  opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has warned armed ethnic minority groups not to rush into signing a nationwide ceasefire, a top party colleague said 26 August, a position that pits her against President Thein Sein, who has made reaching a deal before November ...

Cambodia’s young internet users are thinking twice before discussing politics online, say prominent bloggers, after the third case of government punitive action sparked by Facebook comments within a month. On 22 August, student Kong Raiya, 25, was charged over a Facebook post linked to him for ...

After a Khemerak University student was jailed in Phnom Penh on 22 August over a social media post calling for a “color revolution” in Cambodia, the school’s director on 24 August claimed that politics had “poisoned” students at his institution. Police arrested Kong Raya, 25, at the university ...

A group of students from central Vietnam have joined hands to teach Vietnamese in the neighboring country of Laos and helped cement the friendship between the two nations. The course in Laos’ Xiangkhouang Province is part of the summer volunteer activities of an international volunteer team ...

British rights activist Andy Hall has been charged with criminal defamation in Thailand after he researched a report that alleged labour abuses at the Natural Fruit Company, a large Thai pineapple wholesaler that supplies the EU. The Bangkok south criminal court decided on 24 August to indict the ...

A ‘model village’ built by the government offers little improvement in living standards for several hundred families displaced by conflict in Kachin State. Ngwe Pyaw, which means “wealthy village” in Myanmar language, was founded in May 2014 as a pilot resettlement site. But it is wealthy ...

Vietnamese are consuming too much starch and sugar and only half the amount of daily vegetables recommended, partly because of worries about pesticides, experts said.   A recent survey by the National Institute of Nutrition found a person in Vietnam consumes 200 grams of vegetables on average ...

The Arakan State government’s ongoing citizenship verification process has caused disquiet among local Arakanese, some of whom contend that immigration officials are overly accommodating of unwarranted claims. The citizenship verification process, a largely ill-defined scheme that involves non-nationals providing proof of Burma-born ancestry, has led to ...