ព័ត៌មាន​

As Mekong River Commission (MRC) countries prepare for a crucial meeting next week to debate Laos’ proposal to build the first Lower Mekong River dam, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has called for a delay of the controversial project. The US Senate’s concern was echoed ...

Environmental Group World Wildlife Fund yesterday called on the four member governments of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to shelve Laos’ proposal to build the first Lower Mekong River hydropower dam when the countries meet next week in Siem Reap province. Las has planned numerous dams ...

Hundreds of students attending a forum yesterday on plans of regional governments to develop hydropower dams on the Mekong River expressed concern over the river’s future, and they urged the governments to abandon the projects or proceed with caution. The forum in Phnom Penh was the ...

A representative of environmental group International Rivers said yesterday that if the Laos government were to move forward with a controversial dam project, it would violate the 1995 Mekong Agreement. “Moving forward with the dam would be against international law,” said Ame Trandem, Sountheast Asia program ...

A consulting firm commissioned by the Lao government to prepare a report on the controversial US$3.8 billion Xayaburi dam project has rejected claims by environmentalists that their assessment was “biased” due partly to existing ties with a project backer. On Wednesday, conservation group International Rivers claimed ...

An environmental group yesterday refuted the validity of a report commissioned by Laos in September claiming that construction of its controversial Xayaburi dam would not have a significant impact on the Mekong River. The report, completed for the Lao government by Swiss engineer Poyry Energy AG, ...

October marks the start of the main rice harvest in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter of the grain. Traders are waiting to see the full impact of flooding on the crop, but it’s already clear that output across Southeast Asia will fall substantially. The U.N.’s ...

Rice futures jumped the most permitted by the Chicago Board of Trade, advancing to a one- month high, as flood damage to crops in Southeast Asia boosted prospects for U.S. exports. Storms since September damaged 12.5 percent of paddies in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, and ...

Atok-Big Wedge Co. Inc., a listed company owned by the group of former Trade minister Roberto Ongpin, acquired Tidemark Holdings Ltd., a Hong Kong company that owns 25.9 percent of Forum Energy Plc, an oil and gas firm controlled by Philex Mining Corp. Atok-Big Wedge said ...

Phnom Penh — Cambodia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong and his Singapore’s counterpart K Shanmugam agreed on Wednesday that the territorial dispute in the South China Sea between China and some ASEAN countries should be solved peacefully. “We have exchanged ideas on the issue of ...

Cambodian officials say the country’s economic growth rate is set to exceed seven percent this year. According to financial analysts even if the global economy slows, Cambodia is well prepared to deal with it, partly because of strong foreign investment. But the billions of dollars ...

TNT Express linked its Chinese day-definite domestic road services into its Asia Road Network. This has created the only scheduled day-definite road network covering China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, said the operator. CEO Marie-Christine Lombard said: “With the integration of TNT’s two ...

Tourism ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam held a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City to discuss ways to boost tourism in all the four countries, creating a four country tourist destination. At the meeting on September 13, attended by over 200 delegates and investors, ...

Heavy flooding during the rainy season, affecting 10 out of 17 provinces in Laos, has underlined the need for stronger disaster-management efforts, experts say. Tropical storm Haima struck central and northern parts of the country on June 24, with Nock-10 hitting central and southern areas on ...

The Xayaburi dam project in Northern Laos might increase the probability of earthquakes in a region already prone to seismic activity, according to a recently translated report from Vietnam. The 1260-megawatt project sits about 100 kilometres south of the Lai Chau-Dien fault line. Construction activity on the ...

HCM CITY – A workshop to develop disaster management capacity for the four Lower Mekong countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam by encouraging collaborative efforts through dialogue and information exchange opened yesterday in HCM City. The five-day Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Disaster Management workshop, ...

In 2012, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar will begin to implement a multimodal transport operations project in order to strengthen the ASEAN regional cross-border transport corridors and promote regional and transport development toward the ASEAN-community integration in 2015, senior officials said this week ...

Laos wants to start construction this year on the $3.8 billion (Bt115 billion) Thai-financed Xayaburi hydropower plant on the Mekong River after changing the design of the dam to placate neighbouring countries opposed to the project. Laos completed a review of the dam recently to ease ...

Cambodia approved $1.2 billion in investments from China in the first six months of the year, a 104 percent increase in the amount of Chinese money set to flood into the economy compared to the same period last year, the Cambodian Investment Board said. The ...

VISA, Mastercard, Dell and Cisco Systems have been added to a growing list of US companies looking to enter the Cambodian market, according to Frances Zwenig, counsellor of the US-ASEAN Business Council. The financial services and information technology companies joined GE, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson ...

President of Laos National Assembly, Her Excellency Pany Yathotou, on September 1st arrived here for the four-day official visit in order to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the neighboring countries “Both sides will exchange visits of the officials and lawmakers of National Assemblies to strengthen bonds and ...

About half a million establishments in Cambodia as of March 1, 2011 released the preliminary results of the Economic Census of Cambodia (EC 2011) released by H.E. Chay Than on August 8th in Phnom  Penh. The final results of EC 2011 will be released in ...

Conservation group WWF on Wednesday called for urgent action to prevent the extinction of freshwater dolphins in the Mekong River, including the creation of special conservation zones. Entanglement in fishing nets, low calf survival rates and a steady degradation of the creature’s habitat are threatening ...

Southeast Asia needs to push ahead with a regional free trade bloc and policies to cope with global financial crises, Indonesia’s government said yesterday. Indonesia’s Vice President Boediono, addressing trade ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said it was evident since the ...