The People’s Party (PP) has called on the government to tackle arsenic contamination from foreign mining, spreading from northern rivers to the Mekong in the Northeast. It is urging immediate talks with China, Myanmar and Laos.

PP deputy spokesman and Chiang Mai MP Phattarapong Leelaphat posted on Facebook on Saturday, accusing authorities of ignoring the toxic contamination. Arsenic levels in Mekong River passing Loei, Bueng Kan, Nong Khai and Nakhon Phanom provinces exceeded safety standards, yet officials withheld the information from the public, he said.

The pollution originates from neighbouring countries’ mining operations, but the government has failed to act. While contamination in northern rivers such as the Kok, Sai and Salween has long been known, the problem is now spreading to the Northeast, he added.

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Vladivostok (VNA) – A business dialogue session between Russia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) took place in Vladivostok on September 4 as part of the ongoing 9th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF 2024).

At the opening of the event, Daniyar Akkaziev, CEO of the Russia-ASEAN Business Council, affirmed that Russia values its cooperation with ASEAN, considering the region’s rapid and diverse development potential in the Asia-Pacific.

With the sides signing a strategic partnership agreement in 2016 and Russia joining the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) in 2004, he noted the moves are prerequisites for Russia to strengthen its dialogue with bloc member countries.

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The United Nations’ cultural agency recommended Thursday that Laos invite a monitoring mission to the historic city of Luang Prabang, a World Heritage Site where a nearby dam project on the Mekong River has raised concerns it could lose the coveted status.

While the World Heritage Committee welcomed Laos’ efforts to improve data collection on the possible effect of the dam and mitigate any harm to the UNESCO site, it recommended the country invite a new team of experts to assess the state of conservation first-hand.

Laos seemed agreeable to the idea, with its delegate telling the group at its annual meeting in New Delhi that authorities were prepared to work “hand in hand” with UNESCO to preserve the site.

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Dr. Eang Sophalleth, Minister of Environment, received Ms. Rebekah Bell, Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Cambodia, and her colleagues for a courtesy call on September 13, 2023, at the Ministry of Environment.

Sophalleth welcomed and appreciated the cooperation between the Ministry of Environment and FAO on new initiatives, including the Green Climate Fund project and the Global Environment Facility, in response to natural resource management, conservation of protected areas, biodiversity conservation, adaptation to climate change, and REDD+ programmes.

The Minister also outlined the Ministry of Environment’s short-term priorities for activities, focusing on activities to reduce the use of plastic bags in schools with 3.7 million students, the development of protected area communities through the establishment of natural and historical corridors, community livelihoods, and the establishment of carbon neutrality and climate change responses.

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VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/Asia News Network): Renewable energy generation in South-east Asia, including Laos, can generate US$90 billion to US$100 billion in sustainable revenues by 2030, according to a new report.

The report, “Renewable Energy Manufacturing: Opportunities for Southeast Asia”, was published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a collection of non-profit organisations – Bloomberg Philanthropies, ClimateWorks Foundation and Renewable Energy For All.

“Growing South-east Asia’s solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, battery, and electric two-wheeler industries presents an estimated US$90 billion to US$100 billion revenue opportunity by 2030, with a potential 6 million renewable energy jobs to be created by 2050,” the ADB said.

Laos is committed to promoting renewable energy and investments in low-carbon sectors to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. For instance, the Monsoon Wind Power Project, with a capacity of 600 MW, is set to be built in Xekong and Attapeu provinces in southern Laos to export and sell electricity to neighbouring Vietnam.

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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND — Hundreds of thousands of people are being coerced in Southeast Asia by criminal gangs into carrying out online scams, often under the threat of torture, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Many have been trafficked into working in online criminality and face serious violations such as torture or sexual violence, the UN said in a report.

“People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while being forced to carry out crimes,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said.

“They are victims. They are not criminals.”

The scale of the scourge in Southeast Asia is difficult to gauge because of the practice’s clandestine nature and gaps in the response by authorities, the report noted.

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The United Nations is convening this week a global gathering to try to map out the frontiers of artificial intelligence and to harness its potential for empowering humanity.

The UN hopes to lay out a clear blueprint on the way forward for handling AI, as development of the technology races ahead the capacity to set its boundaries.

The “AI for Good Global Summit”, being held in Geneva on Thursday and Friday, will bring together around 3,000 experts from companies like Microsoft and Amazon as well as from universities and international organisations to try to sculpt frameworks for handling AI.

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The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) surpassed 1.8 million in war-ravaged Myanmar on June 12, 2023, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Prior to the February 2021 military coup, the estimated number of internally displaced people was 328,000. They were in Kachin, Rakhine, Karen, Shan and Chin states.

Between February 2021 and June 2023, another 1.5 million people in seven states and four regions were displaced by the civil war.

They account for 82 percent of the more than 1.8 million internally displaced people in Myanmar.

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BEIJING — The 2023 Lancang – Mekong Cooperation Media Summit took place in Beijing on June 27, gathering media agencies from the six countries in the Lancang – Mekong river basin, namely China, Việt Nam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand.

The Vietnamese side included representatives of the Nhân Dân newspaper, the Vietnam News Agency, the Radio station Voice of Vietnam, National Assembly Television, and the Communist Party of Việt Nam e-newspaper.

Addressing the fourth summit, Li Shulei, Politburo member, Secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Committee’s Publicity Department, emphasised the importance of the Lancang – Mekong cooperation mechanism to the promotion of regional countries’ development.

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Vietnam-focused private equity firm Mekong Capital is looking to build a climate fund worth up to $200 million as early as next year, focusing on investments that will help with the regeneration of forests in the Mekong region.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based firm is setting up a team for the fund, which will look at businesses that will help restore forests including those involved in organic and seaweed farming in the Mekong region comprising Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, its founder and partner Chris Freund told Reuters.

“There are actually a lot of businesses like that that are doing those things in this region,” Freund said in an interview. “But there’s really no fund investing in those.”

The climate fund is set to be the first to focus specifically on Southeast Asia with the launch coming at a time when investors globally are increasingly focusing on investments that can help in the fight against global warming.

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