The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in south-eastern Bangladesh is neighbouring to the Greater Mekong region, currently flagged for the spread of resistance to the widely used antimalarial drug ‘artemisinin.’ Artemisinin-resistance means that at present the most widely used drug may not work against the disease spread by mosquitoes.

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The post Rohingya population displacement: Concern for spread of drug-resistant malaria? first appeared on Open Development Mekong.

Results from a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Cambodia Fisheries Administration census released on Monday (Apr 23) showed that the population of critically endangered river dolphins in the Mekong has slightly risen from 2015.

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The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement hosted an event this week in Yangon aimed at drafting a national policy for a growing contingent of those over 60 years old. One in every 11 Myanmar citizens is elderly, the ministry’s deputy director general Daw San San Aye said. Improvements need to be made in all sectors – including healthcare, and the social and environmental arenas – as that ratio grows, she said. The ministry consulted with elderly people, relevant departments and old-age homes, she added. Like other countries in Southeast Asia, the number of elderly people in Myanmar is increasing rapidly, having nearly quadrupled over the past 60 years due to smaller families and improved life expectancy, according to a 2014 report from the United Nations Population Fund. That growth is expected to accelerate over the next four decades: By 2030, the percentage of elderly people – defined as those over the age of 60 – is expected to jump from 9 percent to 15pc, according to UN data, and by 2050, one-quarter of the country’s citizens may be elderly.

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National Election Committee spokesman Hang Puthea on November 20 said the body will likely miss its target of registering 9.6 million eligible voters because of the large number of Cambodian migrant workers who have failed to register. The NEC and political parties have been appealing to citizens to register for the upcoming commune and national elections after registration numbers fell below the body’s own targetof 100,000 per day. As of yesterday only 7.3 million voters had registered with nine days left before the drive ends. “As the institution in charge of organising elections, we are concerned,” Puthea said. “The NEC has already done what we can. It is now left to people’s participation.” Puthea said that of the 2.3 million people yet to register, close to two million were migrant workers. Additionally, the lack of proper documentation and people registering in their home province as opposed to their current residence had resulted in seemingly low registration numbers for certain provinces.

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Laos and Australia concluded a customs related agreement in Vientiane last week, aiming to promote customs-to-customs ties between the two countries. According to a press rel ease from the Australia Embassy in Vientiane, Australian Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg is visiting the region to further cooperation on countering the trade in illicit drugs and precursors and enhance the Australian government’s immigration and border protection relationships with its Lao counterparts. Commissioner Quaedvlieg said Australia’s strong relationship with Laos was underpinned by the two countries’ shared interests in facilitating the legitimate flow of people and goods throughout the region. Australia’s Ambassador to Laos, John Williams, and Deputy Minister of Finance, Ms Thipphakone Chanthavongsa, also attended the ceremony where Commissioner Quaedvlieg and the Customs Department Acting Director General, Mr Bounpaseuth Sikounlabout, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation and Mutual Assistance on Customs Matters.

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A World Bank investigation into a tea plantation project in India that it jointly finances with tea giant Tata Global Beverages has found that it has failed to tackle alleged abuses of impoverished workers, the group said on November 9. The International Finance Corporation—a member of the World Bank Group—said its accountability office began a probe into the project, run by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited, after reports tea pickers were being exploited. In a statement emailed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the IFC said it welcomed the investigation by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman and would work towards improving conditions for workers in plantations in India’s Assam state. “IFC is continually working with APPL in its ongoing programme of improving living and working conditions and will continue to collaborate with the CAO on the next steps, post-audit,” it said.

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From China and Japan to India and the countries of south-east Asia, leaders are being confronted by the unknowns of a new American president. Donald Trump’s victory has the potential to radically redraw the geopolitical landscape in Asia, where Barack Obama has been trying to counterbalance China’s growing regional influence with his “pivot” strategy. Some believe a Trump presidency could represent the biggest threat to Washington’s security ties with its two biggest allies in the Asia-Pacific – Japan and South Korea – since the end of the second world war. But the rest of the region will be watching intently. “There is a sense that this is a big epochal change, that this is the end of the old order and we are not sure what is coming,” said Nick Bisley, an international relations expert from La Trobe University in Melbourne. “And I think this is especially true in Asia because it is the place where you have seen American influence most obviously challenged, politically and economically, by a rising China.

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Young people are leaving the Mekong Delta, Vietnam’s rice bowl, while the region’s economic growth is declining. These issues were discussed at the conference about socio-economic development of the Mekong Delta 30 years after the economic reforms implemented in 1986 held by Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences on October 28. Nguyen Van Sanh, Director of the Mekong Delta Research Development Institute, said the Mekong Delta had recorded many achievements in the past years but its current situation was worrying. “The region’s GDP in 1990 is half again as much as Ho Chi Minh City’s but this has changed because of the shortcomings in the region’s economic structure,” he said. For a long time, Mekong Delta depended on rice fields. It only pays more attention to aquaculture and fruit recently. It has hardly developed any industrial zones or service industries back then, causing difficulties for 2.8 million households. The region recorded annual economic growth of 10% in the 2001-2010 period, but this had fallen to 8.8% during the 2011-2014 period and 8% in 2015. Agriculture has become less important, as it only accounted for 33% of the region’s GDP last year compared to 54% in 2000. Meanwhile, construction and industrial zones accounted for 26%, up from 18% in 2000 and the service industry was 41%, up from 28%.

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Even as more Singaporeans had babies last year, Singapore’s population growth remained low, rising 1.3 per cent to reach 5.61 million in June. The statistics, released on September 27 by the National Population and Talent Division in its annual Population in Brief report, also showed that the number of citizens rose by 1 per cent to 3.41 million, through births and immigration. The number of permanent residents remained relatively stable at 520,000, compared to 530,000 in June 2015. The non-resident population – largely comprised of foreigners working in Singapore and their families, as well as students – grew by 2.5 per cent to 1.67 million, compared to 2.1 per cent the previous year. Stronger growth was seen in the number of foreign domestic workers and Singaporeans’ dependents on long-term visit passes, the NPTD noted in its report.

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