News

If you are the world’s second-largest power, what do you dream about? How do you go about making this dream come true? Put bluntly, the Mekong River region represents a crucial testing ground for Beijing’s mid- to long-term ambitions — not acknowledged officially — to become ...

The Lao government aspires to gain centrality in the Greater Mekong Subregion via new infrastructure; but at what price? The Lao government is strongly pushing ahead with different projects to better connect the country to the main transport networks of the region and integrate it into ...

Critics of the 1,285-megawatt Xayaburi hydropower dam in northern Laos fear recent upgrades to the controversial project won’t be enough to save the Mekong River from a critical tipping point when it starts churning out electricity at full throttle next month. After seven years of construction, ...

Laos, Malaysia and Thailand have agreed to expand a trilateral power deal, under which Lao electricity will be sold to the Malaysians via the Thai grid, Thailand’s minister of energy said Thursday. “Thailand, Laos and Malaysia achieved a new purchase deal, raising the capacity from 100 ...

A state-owned construction company is planning to build a 155-km (96-mile) expressway through the Mekong Delta using ODA and public funds. The Cuu Long Corporation for Investment Development and Project Management of Infrastructure (Cuu Long CIPM) has worked with authorities in the delta’s Can Tho City ...

The much anticipated annual flooding season in the Mekong Delta is set to arrive in the next few days, much later than usual. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) reports that the floods have reached Thailand and Laos now, and should reach Cambodia in the next few ...

The Tonle Sap Lake is called the Great Lake by Cambodians for good reason. The scenic lake spans a vast area as the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia. Its quaint waterborne villages are popular with tourists. Yet Cambodia’s Great Lake does more than just provide for ...

It has been a bad year for the Mekong. An unusually long period of drought has brought water levels to some of the lowest measurements in recent years. There are fears that the drought will have a particularly negative effect on the Tonle Sap River, connecting ...

The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) on Thursday approved the registration of solar park projects in Kampong Chhnang and Pursat provinces. Both solar farms are an investment of Schneitec Sustainable. Each park will have a capacity of 60 megawatts and will cost $58 million. One ...

An RFA blogger held in Vietnam on charges of corruption has been allowed to meet with a lawyer for the first time since he was abducted in Thailand earlier this year and forced back to Vietnam, his attorney told RFA on Thursday. Truong Duy Nhat, a ...