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The government has called for the sectors responsible to shoulder more responsibility in finding solutions to six pressing issues that are affecting socio-economic development. The issues were tabled at the government’s monthly meeting held in Vientiane on July 23-24 when cabinet members discussed possible measures to ...

An expensive high-speed railway is a nice dream, but let’s get real and build better roads between provinces first. On a visit to California, I discovered that the western U.S. state had kept pending a high speed rail proposal since 1996 due to funding cuts made ...

Getting old can be hard under any circumstances, and harder still when you’re poor. That’s the predicament for Thailand, the developing country first in line to face the consequences of a first-world-style baby bust. Data published last month by the United Nations show births in Thailand ...

By this time of year, the Mekong River should have been rising steadily with the monsoon rains, bringing fishermen a bounty of fat fish. Instead, the river water in Thailand has fallen further than anyone can remember and the only fish are tiny. Scientists and people living ...

The Thai government must suspend plans to buy electricity from a dam in Laos, conservationists said on Friday (Jul 26), as water levels along the kingdom’s section of Mekong river plummet to near-record lows. The Thai-built Xayaburi dam, a few hours from the northern Laos town ...

The unfortunate speculation that China is building a military base in Cambodian territory is guided by only by ill-intended and misinformed plethora without any evidence. It is utterly a smear campaign against the national interests of Cambodians and the hard-earned peace and development the national government ...

The Mekong River’s water level during this year’s early flood season, from June to July, is among the lowest on record, according to the Mekong River Commission (MRC), with experts warning of impending consequences on the upcoming dry season in Vietnam. Water levels in the Mekong ...

Civil society groups in three countries have called for construction to stop on a dam in southern Laos where a major collapse occurred last year, killing more than 70 people and leaving about 5,000 villagers homeless. The groups say thousands displaced by the disaster at the Xe-Pian ...

Along with its rapid economic growth, Việt Nam’s electricity demand is also increasing strongly, at around 10 per cent a year, causing huge pressure on the energy sector, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Trương Thanh Hoài, director general of the ministry’s industry department, ...

Arthayudh Srisamoot, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, had spoken to Chinese Ambassador Lyu Jian and Laos Ambassador Seng Soukhathivong on Tuesday following a media outcry about farmers suffering and the Mekong River running dry.  “This severe drought is a natural problem because we have had ...