News

When complaints are made about the haze crisis and air pollution in Southeast Asia, most usually think about fires in Indonesia’s provinces, which have been a recurrent problem for over two decades. However, the situation this year has been different as Thailand has been at the ...

A short animated film is helping to educate the public about Myanmar’s Telecommunications Law and the ways that it can suppress free speech. Are You Ready is a collaboration between EngageMedia and several digital rights activists in Myanmar. It was first screened in December 2018 in Yangon at the Myanmar Digital Rights Forum. ...

Restrictions on border trade with China are a big headache for many Myanmar merchants. China officially bans most rice imports from Myanmar, for example, but its border officials often turn a blind eye to the trade. In early February though the Chinese authorities launched a crackdown ...

While the MRC is well established and recognised as the international treaty-based river basin organization and primary water diplomacy platform in the Mekong River basin, we still have opportunities to improve basin-wide cooperation. My priority is to further equip the MRC Secretariat with the facilitation ...

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha urged Asean members on Wednesday to maintain a good balance between promoting cross-border trade and suppressing transnational crime, which he said holds the key to meeting the region’s sustainable development goals. He made the remark during a speech at Wednesday’s opening of the ...

Myanmar’s parliament is expected to approve in May a bill that would authorise the setting up of foreigner-only casinos in the country, the Myanmar Times newspaper reported on Sunday. The parliament is expected to sit again later this month after an April holiday break. Keep reading ...

In recent times, plastic straws have been shunned due to its impact on marine animals. Now, numerous purportedly more eco-friendly alternatives to plastic straws have sprouted, such as metal straws and rice straws. One rather innovative solution that has surfaced are straws made out of grass. In a ...

Myanmar has recognised ASEAN’s role in assisting with the displaced communities’ humanitarian needs. It has also indicated willingness to address this via the good offices of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Management (AHA Centre). To this end, the ASEAN Emergency Response ...

China and the US have long courted Southeast Asian nations, trying to bring them into their respective spheres of influence and establish a foothold in the region. No one nation dominates completely, but over the last couple of decades, China has stepped up its diplomatic ...

An activist who has been fighting for years against the planned dredging of sections of the Mekong River for greater shipping access has called on the authorities to clarify the status of the project, which was supposed to have been cancelled following a meeting between ...