Will the Belt and Road Initiative bring environmental devastation or a new era of Chinese global resource stewardship? Asks Lili Pike
Category: Article
Paying for progress: Getting the private sector to pull its weight
The ADB’s 25 developing member countries together invested $881 billion in infrastructure in 2015, which is well below the estimated $1.34 trillion annual investment needed over the five-year period from 2016-20 if climate change-related projects are included. This gap amounts to 2.4% of annual average projected GDP for the same period.
Companies Join Hands to Build Xe Bangfai Dam
Mitr Phol Corp., Ltd of Thailand and the Laosamay Road Bridge Construction Company have signed a joint investment agreement for the development and construction of a hydropower dam on the Xe Bangfai river in Khammuan and an irrigation system for both Khammuan and Savannakhet provinces.
Vietnam’s response to climate change? A shrimp and mangrove cocktail
Julia Wallace Like other shrimp farmers here in this lush, canal-lined province in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, Nguyen Van A can instantly rattle off the precise percentage of saltwater in which crustaceans grow best. And at the moment, he insists with a smile, everybody knows that Ben Tre Province has the best brackish water in the […]
Experts explore sustainable infrastructure amid major development needs
Southeast Asia to be hit hard by road construction: 95 percent of all illegal deforestation takes place within 3.4 miles of a road, meaning road construction will place massive pressure on jungles and forests in the future.
Mekong Delta Blues
BBC Radio 4’s Costing the Earth program explores how the government of Laos is determined to develop the nation by building hydroelectric dams for electricity, yet many people in the downstream countries of Cambodia and Vietnam are worried that the flow of the life-giving waters of the Mekong will be much reduced and fish life devastated. Peter Hadfield reports from the banks of the Mekong
Civil society sets advocacy targets for AIIB
A year after the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s launch, NGO leaders involved see now as a key moment to build a constructive relationship. The $100 billion bank has yet to announce many of its own substantial financing projects, choosing instead to partner with other multilateral development banks. The bank is also still staffing up and building its internal systems — exactly the time when CSOs hope their voices can be heard.
Vietnam’s dry season to be severe this year: experts
Mekong Delta farmers experienced the worst dry season in history in 2016, and are now facing another severe season in 2017
China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Policy Benefits Cambodia, Analysts Say
The Asian Development Bank figures that some $26 billion in investment will be needed by 2030 to meet regional infrastructure demands.
Fishing ban remains a year on after Formosa toxic spill along Vietnam’s central coast
The Vietnamese government has asked four central provinces hit by the April 2016 environment disaster linked to the Taiwanese steel conglomerate Formosa to uphold a fishing ban within 20 nautical miles of the coast as the environment has yet to recover