News
Mekong Delta's biggest reservoir contaminated by saltwater intrusion
Seawater has intruded into the Mekong Delta’s largest reservoir, Kenh Lap in Ben Tre Province. A local man tested water from it and using a salinity meter on Monday and got a reading of 1.45 parts per thousand (ppt). Fresh water has a salinity of 0.5 ppt ...
Hoang Nam
Towns set for Unesco’s Creative City Network
UNESCO representatives on Friday met with Minister of Tourism Thong Khon, marking the next step in the Kingdom’s efforts to add Battambang, Kampot and Kratie towns to the Creative City Network. Unesco representative to Cambodia Sardar Umar Alam led the delegation and discussed strengthening collaboration in ...
Khorn Savi
South-East Asia is sprouting Chinese enclaves
In a remote part of northern Laos, the bamboo forest gives way to cranes. A city is being carved out of jungle: tower blocks cloaked in scaffolding loom over restaurants, karaoke bars and massage parlours. The beating heart of Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (so ...
Xayaboury set to become new transit hub
Xayaboury province is becoming a major transit hub for international tourists after the government upgraded a border crossing with Thailand to inter-national level, according to a senior provincial official. “We are becoming a new transit hub for international tourists coming to Laos,” the province’s Deputy Governor, ...
Vientiane Times
VN aims to become global agriculture powerhouse
Việt Nam is pursuing an ambitious plan to become a global agricultural powerhouse by 2030, according to Government Resolution 53/NQ-CP. The resolution stipulates that Việt Nam must aim to rank among the world’s top 15 most developed agricultural countries and a global hub for agricultural logistics ...
Cambodia Gears Up for Launch of Central Bank Digital Currency
The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has announced it is preparing to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC). NBC’s director-general, Chea Serey, said the central bank was developing “the national payment gateway for Cambodia.” It would serve as a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer platform with its own specially designed cryptocurrency. According ...
Daniel Abel
Mekong action results in huge haul of drugs
More than 32 million methamphetamine pills have been seized thanks to a two-month-long coordinated anti-drug campaign by countries in the Mekong Delta, says the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). The joint campaign was implemented in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia since December, and ...
Myanmar Shows Why Fixing The Plastic Crisis Is So Darn Complicated
Golden earrings swing from San San Thwin’s ears as she serves customers in her grocery store in Mingalun village, 90 miles from Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon. This is what she has done almost every day for 30 years, but there has been a striking change ...
Sara Perria
Thailand's sugar output to hit nine-year low due to drought - trade body
Thailand’s sugar production is likely to fall 28% year-on-year in 2019/20 to a nine-year low of 10.5 million tonnes as drought curtails cane supplies, the head of a leading trade body told Reuters on Friday. The lower production will limit exports from the world’s second-biggest exporter ...
Students turn discarded plastic bags into bricks
Tonnes of plastic waste, particularly discarded plastic bags threaten our planet with environmental pollution, and by now almost everybody knows it. However, knowing what the problem is and solving it are two different things. Luckily, a group of students have found their own way to cut ...