News
ADB sells $1.3 billion in global green bonds to spur climate financing
The Asian Development Bank has raised $1.3 billion to help finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects with the issue of dual-tranche 3-year and 10-year green bonds, following its inaugural green bond issue in 2015. Last year, ADB announced that it will double its annual climate ...
South-east Asian countries need to step up cooperation to fight extremist terrorism
Countries in South-east Asia need to step up cooperation to fight the threat of extremist terrorism, Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said at the International Meeting on Counter-Terrorism in Bali. “We need to establish a common understanding of the security threats facing us, the challenge ...
World Bank staff point to 'leadership crisis' at global lender
Staff at the World Bank delivered a broadside against its sitting president this week, saying the global lender faced a “crisis of leadership” and risked irrelevance on the world stage. The rebuke, made in an open letter from the Bank’s staff association, came as informal talks ...
Offices of Mekong River Commission decamp to Laos
The Mekong River Commission’s secretariat in Phnom Penh – one of two for the group, charged with managing the river’s sustainable development – is being shuttered in favour of a single office in Vientiane, a decision that has provoked widespread concern among current and former ...
ASEAN and the EEU: close to free trade zone?
ASEAN and EEU member countries are estimated to have a combined GDP of $3.5 trillion and a combined population of over 700 million. On August 5, Russian media outlets quoted Russian Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukayev as saying that an agreement had been reached ...
GMS cross-border pact on hold
Though all countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region had signed a cross-border trade agreement 14 years ago to enhance the sub-region’s economic connectivity, the CBTA, however, is yet to be ratified in individual Mekong nations for its full implementation. This was revealed last week by ...
China's 5 year plan for energy
China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for energy might be one of the most anticipated official documents in the world and is one that will have far-reaching impacts on the carbon trajectory of the world’s number one emitter. Recently, information about the plan begins to surface in the Chinese ...
China offers to work with partners to build East Asian infrastructure
China is willing to work with all parties to build roads, railway lines, air and sea route networks in East Asia to improve regional connectivity and trade flows, Commerce Minister GaoHucheng said on August 4. These goals can be achieved through the cooperative framework of ...
Mekong agriculture lacks FDI
Bad weather, fluctuating prices and high risk in agricultural cultivation has made foreign investors hesitate in pouring capital into the sector. According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Can Tho branch, for the first six months of this year, the Mekong Delta attracted ...
Major drug smuggling group smashed by Safe Mekong operation
One of the five major drug smuggling groups operating in the region has been crushed and its 26 networks destroyed by the Safe Mekong Joint Operation, Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya announced on Wednesday.Gen Paiboon was briefing the media on progress in the third phase of ...
