News
Koh Kong’s first coal-fired plant up in the air: Ministry
The investors of a project to build the first coal-fired power plant in Koh Kong province are still looking for buyers, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy. In 2017, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, a government-owned utility, started negotiations on building a 2,400-megawatt coal-fired ...
Chea Vansak
Laos State Media: Woman Arrested for Criticizing Government on Facebook Confesses
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Lao state media reported Tuesday that a woman who was arrested in Laos last week for criticizing the government on Facebook has confessed to her crime. In a Facebook Live video last week, Houayheuang Xayabouly, known by her nickname Mouay, had slammed the Lao government’s slow ...
Grassroots solutions to deadly problems
Local empowerment has become the best prevention measure against diseases and accidents in two Chiang Mai communities, who have learned firsthand how collective grassroots action can keep them safe. Dengue fever has terrorised the communities in tambon Ban Luang in Chom Thong district for years. Locals ...
Onnucha Hutasingh
Tonlé Sap Ecosystem is threatened by Development of Hydropower Dams on the Mekong River
Every year, between May and October, floodwaters from the Lower Mekong Basin reverse the flow of the Tonlé River in Cambodia. That pushes sediment-rich waters into the Tonlé Sap Lake and its surrounding floodplains and forests, which support complex food webs, migration patterns and agricultural ...
Kitila Davies
Kampot mangroves ‘cleared in land grab’
The Changhaon village community claims that many hectares of mangrove forest in the coastal area in a village in Teuk Chhou district’s Prek Tnort commune, in Kampot province, were being cut down to grab land for private ownership. However, they claim that the authorities have not ...
Voun Dara
Thai Belt and Road project bumps into finance and liability issues
Thailand’s government is delaying China’s ambitious high-speed railway project in the country as questions over financing and liabilities of the $9.9 billion infrastructure initiative remain unresolved. Sources within Thailand’s transport sector confirmed to the Nikkei Asian Review that behind-the-scenes negotiations between Bangkok and Beijing over the ...
Marwaan Macan-Markar
Japanese firm replaces Chinese as financial partner in railway project
Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation will act as financial partner for the Yangon Central Railway Station Development Project, replacing China’s Sino Great Wall as part of a consortium selected to implement the project, according to U Ba Myint, Managing Director of Myanma Railways. “Sumitomo approached us as a ...
Thina Ko Ko
Minister relays land encroachment prevention orders
Agriculture Minister Veng Sakhon has urged local authorities to follow the instructions of the Council of Ministers on how to prevent illegal land encroachment. On Thursday, the Council of Ministers issued a letter to Mr Sakhon, who is chairman of the National Committee to Prevent Illegal ...
Pech Sotheary
The salty taste of climate change
Salt water is seeping into freshwater underground aquifers that are used to irrigate crops and provide communities with water for drinking and washing, but because these aquifers are out of sight, they get less attention than surface water, which is also impacted by sea-level rise. U ...
Kyaw Nyunt Linn
Vietnamese Blogger Pham Doan Trang Receives Award For Work to Improve Journalistic Freedom
Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has awarded its 2019 Press Freedom Prize to three female journalists, including prominent Vietnamese blogger Pham Doan Trang, who authored a book on political engagement that angered authorities in Hanoi. Trang, who has vowed to remain in Vietnam until ...