Nikkei Asian Review
Thailand challenges Laos dam building spree on Mekong River
Activists gathered Saturday in Paris to support people exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, after a French court examined the case of a French-Vietnamese woman who sued 14 companies that produced and sold the powerful defoliant dioxin used by U.S. troops. Former journalist Tran ...
MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
Vietnam and Thailand attract German solar energy funds
A German crowd investing platform for green energy is looking to further expand in Southeast Asia after most recently acquiring a Thai solar project. Ecoligo bought SEA Rooftop Solar, the Thai solar subsidiary of German utility giant RWE, in December. With the deal, whose price has not been disclosed, ...
JENS KASTNER
Vietnam agrees to World Bank deal to stop forest loss
Vietnam is set to receive tens of millions of dollars to help it keep a promise not to cut down trees, part of a controversial World Bank program that critics say does not produce its intended effect — carbon emission reductions. The Southeast Asian nation has ...
LIEN HOANG
Cambodia plans China-style internet firewall
Cambodia’s government will route all web traffic through a “national internet gateway” under plans that human rights advocates fear will see critical content blocked by a China-style firewall. The plans are laid out in a yet-to-be-signed sub-decree drafted in July and obtained by the Nikkei Asian ...
SHAUN TURTON
Conservation activists urge post-pandemic tourism reset in Thailand
It is 9 a.m. on a sultry Sunday morning off the coast of Koh Phangan, a popular tourist island in the Gulf of Thailand. More than 30 divers are getting ready to plunge into the tropical waters — not to marvel at the underwater world ...
TOM VATER and LAURE SIEGEL
Cambodia's shift to coal power riles global brands
Cambodia’s embrace of new coal power projects is making the Southeast Asian state “less attractive” to international brands producing in the country. In a letter addressed to the Cambodian government and seen by the Nikkei Asian Review, several major companies expressed concern about the country’s plans ...
SHAUN TURTON
Laos' debt woes worsen as bills for China-funded dams loom
COVID-19 has rattled Laos’ debut in selling a U.S. dollar bond in international markets, adding pressure on a country whose “Wild West of dam building” splurge has put it in a precarious repayment situation, especially in regard to China, its leading lender. Sources familiar with the ...
MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
Vietnam and Mekong peers pay economic price despite low virus tolls
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have detected far fewer coronavirus cases than their more advanced Southeast Asian neighbors, but their economies are taking a beating all the same, potentially forcing a rethink of their development models down the road. Analysts at Maybank Kim Eng expect the ...
DYLAN LOH
Chinese investment upheavals anger Laos' indigenous tribes
Rackety trucks rush across China’s border with its backwater neighbor, stirring up clouds of dust and drowning the tweets of tropical birds. Chinese projects to construct roads in one of Asia’s poorest countries date back to 1962 when Laos was subject to a proxy war between the global Cold ...
Robert Bociaga
Vietnam puts the Mekong's fate on ASEAN's agenda
In a nod to green diplomacy, Vietnam is raising the geopolitical stakes over the Mekong River, Southeast Asia’s largest body of water, which has dropped to record lows due to a severe drought and construction of large dams. Hanoi has signaled its intent to raise the issue this ...
Marwaan MaCan-Markar