Asia Times

Thailand has been a popular expatriate destination for investment and retirement for decades, but foreign land ownership has long been restricted. Foreigners can own no more than 49% of any condominium development and are restricted from owning most freehold estates. Yet Thailand is keen to attract ...

For generations farmers and their families harvesting their rice paddies in the fertile Mekong Delta have relied on the river’s bountiful fish resources and rice production for their subsistence. For millions, the pulse of life is the constant flow of the river. Those living along the ...

Myanmar’s multiple internecine conflicts are raging, with few if any signs of respite or resolution. Quantifying “old” and “new” dimensions of the conflict with the recent proliferation of new, anti-coup People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) alongside long-fighting ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) is difficult, if not impossible, ...

Evidence of the climate crisis is everywhere. The Mekong River has recorded historically low dry-season flows for the third year in a row, alongside an increase in the frequency of extreme flood events. Its delta is continuing to sink and shrink, while its riverbanks erode, ...

When China announced in early August a new US$6 million for new development projects in Myanmar, the sum was trifling in Beijing’s wider $1 trillion global Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China’s Foreign Ministry said the funds will be used for animal vaccine projects, agricultural development, ...

When Thai Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul met with Pfizer company representatives in Bangkok in late 2020, the businessman-cum-politician declined to place a Covid-19 vaccine order because in his words the shot was not yet proven effective on “yellow-skinned people”, according to government sources familiar ...

Vietnam has justifiably been praised as one of the world’s best performers during the Covid-19 pandemic. By the end of 2020, the country of 96 million people had recorded fewer than 1,400 cases, less than two dozen deaths and was one of the few Asian ...

Concern for the future of Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi is mounting after her appearance in a purpose-built courtroom in the country’s capital Naypyidaw at the start of what is expected to be a seven-week trial. Since the coup on February 1, little has been seen of ...

The Greater Mekong, a transnational region in Southeast Asia, spans six countries: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The region is home to more than 325 million people and, while it has survived the trauma of wars, it now faces mounting environmental threats from ...

In Southeast Asia, as everywhere else, Covid-19 has fundamentally disrupted business as usual. A damaging side-effect of the pandemic on companies in the region, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is the emergence of new corruption risks – the urgent demands of emergency procurement have ...