News
ASU creates network of young scientists in Southeast Asia
Arizona State University is preparing young scientists to improve environmental sustainability, health and economic development through social entrepreneurship. Last year, the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering partnered with the U.S. Department of State to launch the Lower Mekong Initiative Young Scientist Program. The program’s overarching goal is to ...
Golden Triangle bust yields precursor haul
Authorities from four countries have intercepted drug precursors destined for the Golden Triangle and intended to make 30 million methamphetamine pills in their latest crackdowns on Thai and foreign drug gangs.The notorious drug-producing region near the Mekong River is constantly on the target list of ...
UK to help build flood resilience in Vietnam
The effects of climate change pose a direct threat to lives and livelihoods of people living in Vietnam, from death and injury to damaged or destroyed homes, businesses, transport links, power supplies and agricultural land. So academics from the University of Southampton, the University of ...
Reducing Inequality in ASEAN with Blockchain
The poverty rate in ASEAN has been reduced significantly, and the quality of life has improved for a vast number of the region’s 625 million residents. The ASEAN reported in 2017 that since 1990, the region has seen a dramatic reduction in the proportion of ...
The Hidden Environmental Toll of Mining the World’s Sand
By far the largest mining endeavor globally is digging up sand, mainly for the concrete that goes into buildings. But this little-noticed and largely unregulated activity has serious costs — damaging rivers, wreaking havoc on coastal ecosystems, and even wiping away entire islands. In Cambodia, researching ...
Are Cambodia’s hydropower plans risky?
Along with most Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia’s electricity consumption over the past decade has skyrocketed. In a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), electricity consumption in Cambodia has been growing rapidly, averaging 20 percent growth per annum since 2010. This rate continues to accelerate ...
Myanmar’s fading democratic sheen
When Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy (NLD) party won the general elections in 2015, a new wave of hope swept Myanmar. Previously under a military junta for almost 50 years from 1962 to 2011, Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi ...
Brexit could put 1.7 million people around globe into extreme poverty
It’s a long way from Whitehall and Brussels, but a study has found that the developing country that will be hardest hit by Brexit is the south-east Asian nation of Cambodia. With the deadline to reach a Brexit agreement looming in March, much attention has been given to ...
Protecting our food by protecting our farmers
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected that global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2030. This is projected to bring about changes in the climate and natural systems, including changes in the frequency and intensity of weather ...
China’s Six Belt and Road Projects in Myanmar to Watch in 2019
The Myanmar government recently agreed to begin work on key projects under the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) agreement which is part of Chinese’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Experts, including voices from the World Bank, have pointed out that Myanmar’s growth will largely depend on ...
