After seven long years of talks, leaders of 15 Asia-Pacific nations finally reached an agreement on the world’s largest trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), in Bangkok i…
Govt claims half of Myanmar households will have power by year-end
The Ministry of Electricity and Energy said half of the households would have electricity by the end of 2019; despite the chronic power shortages, the country faces due to increasing demand. U Thura A…
Trial run of Indian ships using Bangladeshi ports to begin in January
Bangladesh, India also agree to provide cruise ship passengers with on-arrival visas India will soon have access to Bangladeshi ports for movements of its cargo ships to and from India. The first tria…
Sri Lanka awaits winter tourists to revive terror-hit sector
Seven months after a wave of suicide bombs sucked the life out of Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, winter holidaymakers have returned to reclaim the empty shores along the southern coast of the South…
Sri Lanka sets 5-year economic development target to achieve prosperity
Sri Lanka’s new government headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has set a five-year economic development target to guide the country towards a prosperous future. The target includes achieving …
Boom in manufacturing and e-commerce boosts Vietnam warehousing
Demand from Vietnam’s booming manufacturing and e-commerce sectors has created a spike in warehousing rents and occupancy across the country. John Campbell, national head of industrial at Savills Viet…
Vietnam’s Auction Plan for Solar Energy
Vietnam’s electricity demand has been the second-largest in Southeast Asia since 2015 and is expected to retain this position in 2020. However, only 0.5 percent of excess capacity in the electric syst…
Saving the Mekong With Floating Solar Power
For two decades or more, alarms have been sounding for the Mekong Delta. It is being hammered by climate change, by a proliferation of upstream dams, by unsustainable and inappropriate farming practic…
Laos, FAO review climate change adaptability project
The Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have reviewed the Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) project, …
Why sustainable tourism makes sense
Many struggle to understand why Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat chose to make sustainable tourism the centerpiece agenda of the Department of Tourism (DOT). They argue that our visitor count is stil…