After China’s recent cryptocurrency crackdown, impoverished Laos is now allowing Bitcoin mining, fueled by abundant hydroelectric power from the Mekong River and shrugging off US warnings of disastrous environmental problems.
Category: Laos
Lao villagers displaced by Xayaburi Dam still lack farmland, water
Another project, the Sanakham Dam, is scheduled to move ahead despite local villagers’ complaints.
Building a sustainable and green economic corridor for Laos, hand In hand with FAO
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, with active support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is spearheading an innovative initiative that envisions bringing together governmental, private, and international partners to build a green growth economic corridor along the Laos-China Railway.
Lao workers on China-backed railway project go unpaid
Twenty at one work site are paid after they cut off power to the project, but more than a hundred are still waiting for their pay.. They earn between one million kip (U.S. $100) and two million kip each month.
New indicative ending date set for sanakham dam consultation
The official six-month prior consultation process that began on 9 September 2019 for the proposed US$2 billion Sanakham Dam on the Mekong River will now aim to cease on 19 January 2022.
Landmark MRC-China’s joint study approved for implementation, new indicative ending date for Sanakham dam set
The joint study is due to be formally launched in December 2021 and will run until 2024. It consists of two phases, the first of which will take place during 2022 and is anticipated to yield immediate recommendations for actions. The second phase occurring in 2023–2024 will be implemented in coordination with the MRC’s Strategic Plan 2021–2025.
Wildlife traffickers creeping back as pandemic restrictions ease – U.N. report
Through interviews with wildlife traders and traffickers in difficult-to-police regions in countries along the Mekong River – like Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and China – the UNODC found evidence of wildlife products being stockpiled until prices and demand recover.
Climate change spurs typhus incidence in Laos
“the evidence from this research suggests that we will see an increase of both these diseases not only in Laos but in other countries
as well. The diseases may also spread to areas where they have not previously been found as temperatures rise.”
Water stress poses credit risks for coal, mining and power sectors: Moody’s
In Asia, said Moody’s countries with the highest exposure to water management risks also tend to be large agricultural producers, with those banking systems facing sizable loan exposures. This is the case in India, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Bangladesh where in many cases credit to agriculture and fisheries is reflective of the sectors’ importance to employment.