The Irrawaddy
Number of Journalists Jailed For Doing Job Near Record High: Report
A near-record number of journalists around the world are behind bars for their work, including two Reuters reporters whose imprisonment in Myanmar has drawn international criticism, according to a report released on Thursday. There were 251 journalists jailed for doing their jobs as of Dec. 1, the ...
Is Myanmar Ready to Become a Regional Trade and Supply Hub?
apanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently pledged to promote more than 150 quality infrastructure projects in five nations in the Mekong River subregion—Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos—under a new blueprint, the Tokyo Strategy 2018 for Mekong-Japan Cooperation, which will be effective from 2019 to ...
New Strategies Needed as EAOs Adapt to Changes in Drug Demand
There is both good news and bad news for Myanmar on the drug front: a sharp decline in opium cultivation and a shift toward synthetic drugs, especially methamphetamine. In the past 20 years, opium cultivation has declined to 41,000 hectares, a 75 percent drop from ...
INGOs Discourage Repatriation for their Own Interests: Gov’t Spokesperson
The Myanmar government’s spokesperson U Zaw Htay has accused international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) of deliberately discouraging refugees in Bangladesh from returning to Myanmar due to their own business interests. Speaking at the government’s press conference on Friday, U Zaw Htay, also director-general of the President’s ...
Myanmar Fails to Advance in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business List
Myanmar showed no improvement in its overall ranking in the World Bank’s latest ease of doing business index, retaining the No. 171 spot it held last year—and remaining the least favorable ASEAN member country in which to conduct business. Keep reading ...
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Join Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo
State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will leave for Japan on Friday to take part in the 10th Mekong-Japan Summit to discuss ways to connect industries and improve infrastructure in the Mekong region. The state counselor will also visit a farm in Fukushima Prefecture ...
Investors Dissatisfied With Government’s Lack of Direction on Economy
Impatient with the sluggishness of the economy, local investors are losing confidence in the pace of economic reform and blame it on a lack of direction by the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government after two-and-a-half years of its administration. Keep reading ...
Regional Short Film Contest Launched to Combat Wildlife Trade
The British Embassy in Yangon launched a regional short-film competition on Thursday as part of a UK government initiative to combat the global illegal wildlife trade (IWT). The UK government, in association with the Luang Prabang Film Festival, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Wildlife ...
Chinese Whispers in Yangon as Myanmar Weighs Rohingya Deal With UN
The Myanmar government is in a bind. In order to stave off Western sanctions for its alleged mistreatment of the Rohingya, it is considering signing a memorandum with UN agencies that would set terms for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. But China does ...
Myanmar govt to redistribute vacant land
The Myanmar government is developing a plan to redistribute vacant or fallow plots of land to rural landless people willing to farm the land.The Union Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Dr. Aung Thu told The Irrawaddy on Monday the government had obtained US$4.19 million ...
Htet Naing Zaw
