The ASEAN Post
E-commerce spending expected to triple in ASEAN
Digital consumers in ASEAN will be spending three times as much in 2025 according to a new study from Facebook and Bain & Company. The joint study by the social media giant and global management consultants released this week found that while consumers in Southeast Asia ...
Jason Thomas
Your data isn’t safe in Thailand
ASEAN has a problem as far as personal data protection goes, and at the bottom of this rung sits Thailand. In a study of privacy and surveillance of 47 countries – four of which are ASEAN – by British tech website Comparitech, Thailand was ranked ...
Sheith Khidhir
Dying for land in Lao?
Reports recently surfaced revealing that 69-year-old Thitphay Thammavong had been arrested in Lao last month on 16 September. His crime? According to his family members, he had refused to sign papers that would give up control of his 1.5-hectare plot of land near Viengkham village ...
Sheith Khidhir
Cambodia’s rice farmers in serious danger
Half a million Cambodian farmers could possibly be looking at empty rice bowls if the European Union (EU) pushes through with the withdrawal of its Everything But Arms (EBA) trade preference. While the garment and footwear sectors stand to lose the most if the EBA trade scheme – ...
Jason Thomas
Damming the Mekong to environmental hell
Major dam construction projects have become a favourite pastime of some autocratic governments, with China leading the way. But, far from protecting against water shortages, as supporters promise, large dams are contributing to river depletion and severely exacerbating parched conditions. Nowhere is this more apparent ...
Brahma Chellaney
Worrying days for the Mekong
Water levels at Southeast Asia’s largest river may be at its lowest levels in a century. Low rainfall, high temperatures and poor dam regulations are contributing to a historic low at the Mekong, affecting the region’s agriculture and fishing industries and leading to rapidly drying taps. Chinese ...
Jason Thomas
Solar power shines in Myanmar
Myanmar’s launch of its first commercial solar plant last month is a step in the right direction for a country that has yet to provide more than half of its citizens with proper access to electricity. Constructed on over 836 acres of land, an area equivalent ...
Jason Thomas
ASEAN’s megacities in danger
As megacities emerge across the globe, the ones in Asia remain among the fastest growing and cheapest places to build. These cities will continue to grow in size and affluence, due to ever-increasing urban populations. The United Nations (UN) describe megacities as urban areas with ...
Liyana Hasnan
ASEAN not on track for SDG goals
Despite its best efforts to reach the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) released on Monday stated that on its current trajectory, Asia Pacific will not achieve any ...
Jason Thomas
Timber mischief in Vietnam
In the Southeast Asian region, loss of area under natural forests is largely driven by natural resources extraction and demand for more land for production of food and other commodities. Earlier in 2018, progress tracking of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals for Southeast Asia revealed ...
Sheith Khidhir