The ASEAN Post

Technological advancements and artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionising manufacturing for industries around the world. The International Federation of Robotics estimates that by 2020, the worldwide stock of operational industrial robots would have increased to 3,053,000 units, with the capability to help produce cars, electronics and ...

With 80 percent of the region surrounded by water, ASEAN regularly faces water-related disasters such as floods, cyclones and storms – which are heightened by climate change. Greenhouse gases (GHG) are progressively warming the environment, and melting ice sheets and glaciers are increasing the volume of ...

The ASEAN Post recently published an article regarding the state of human trafficking in the ASEAN region. In that article, there was a focus on Vietnam due to the recent tragedy involving 39 people who were found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Britain. While the ...

The oceans face a growing threat from plastics. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the world produces approximately 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, and most of this plastic ends up in the world’s oceans. Oceana, an international organisation focused on ocean ...

The newly-built Xayaburi dam has raised some key concerns about Lao PDR’s hydropower strategy. While hydropower is one of the country’s main exports, Lao PDR still has to import electricity. And although the government says the Xayaburi dam will improve access to electricity for its citizens, ...

Recently, 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Britain. While the victims were initially identified as Chinese, it has since been found that at least 20 were, in fact, Vietnamese, and almost all from the same – considered poor – province of ...

In a few months’ time, the current Thai government’s position could be hanging in the balance. This is thanks to the country’s 3.2-trillion-baht (US$105.6 billion) fiscal 2020 budget which will have its third reading on 9 January next year.  The 2020 fiscal year began on 1 ...

Food has an environmental impact. A 2018 study by J. Poore and T. Nemecek titled ‘Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers,’ published by the University of Oxford revealed that food production is responsible for 26 percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing ...

A major mercury leak, tap water contamination, and “alarming” levels of haze: several pollution crises in Hanoi have sparked public fury and accusations that communist Vietnam is putting the economy ahead of the environment. Long tapped as an investors’ paradise thanks to its low-cost labour and ...

Despite rising trade tensions and geopolitical risks, half of ASEAN’s member states are among the top drivers of global growth. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook released last week painted a bleak future for the global economy which is in a “synchronised slowdown” and ...