Regional news from Southeast Asia in English — ASEAN politics, economy and diplomacy, covered by Thai PBS World.
Singapore’s economy suffered its worst ever annual contraction in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic hammered the city-state’s vital trade and tourism sectors, official data showed Monday. But the 5.8 percent decline was not as bad as feared — official forecasts had predicted a fall of up to 6.5 percent — as economic activity picked up
Cambodia on Monday (January 4) reopened schools, museums, entertainment venues, bars, and sports stadiums after a five-week lockdown aimed at curbing coronavirus infections across the country. Students could be seen queuing up for temperature checks and hand washing at a local primary school in the capital of Phnom Penh on Monday morning. Venues were technically
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A 46-year-old nurse became the first person in Singapore to receive Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, making the city-state among the first Asian countries to begin an inoculation campaign against the coronavirus. Sarah Lim, a senior staff nurse at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, was the first of more than 30
Cambodian premier Hun Sen announced Tuesday that the kingdom had extracted its first drop of crude oil from its waters, a long-awaited milestone for one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations. The Gulf of Thailand boasts significant oil deposits, with Chevron first finding proven reserves off Cambodia in 2005. But production stalled as the government and the US giant failed to reach a revenue-sharing agreement, leading the firm to sell
Indonesia is poised to secure coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca, the health minister said on Tuesday (December 29), as it awaits authorisation to begin its inoculation program with a third drug, by China’s Sinovac. Budi Gunadi Sadikin said a 50-million-dose deal with AstraZeneca would be finalized before the end of the year, and one of
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China on Sunday, President Joko Widodo said, as the government prepares a mass inoculation programme. Jokowi, as the president is widely known, said in an online briefing that the Southeast Asian country received 1.2 million doses from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a vaccine
The sister of a Thai pro-democracy activist who rights groups say was abducted by unknown gunmen in Cambodia called on Friday for authorities to solve the case after holding a Buddhist prayer ceremony to mark six months since his disappearance. Wanchalearm Satsaksit, 37, was bundled into a vehicle in front of his Phnom Penh apartment
MANILA (Reuters) – The death toll from the deadliest cyclone to hit the Philippines this year has climbed to 67, with 12 people still missing, the national disaster management agency said on Sunday. President Rodrigo Duterte was scheduled to fly to the northern Tuguegarao province later in the day to assess the situation in Cagayan
HANOI/MANILA (Reuters) – Vietnam was bracing for Typhoon Vamco to make landfall in the country’s central coast early on Sunday, as the death toll in the Philippines rose to 53 from that country’s deadliest storm this year. Packing winds of up to 165 kph (103 mph), Vamco is forecast to hit a swathe of Vietnam’s
Thailand’s Kasetsart University (Kamphaeng Saen campus) has developed a new variety of fragrant rice, which is expected to compete favourably against Vietnam’s top-seller. Associate Professor Apichart Wanvichit, director of the Rice Science Centre at the university, today told a news conference, concerning the annual Agricultural Fair, that the new fragrant rice, named Hom Malaiman,
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party said on Friday it would seek to form a government of national unity after official election results showed it had comfortably won enough parliamentary seats to form the next administration. The latest batch of results from Sunday’s vote confirmed Suu Kyi’s National League
Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) said Monday it was confident of winning a landslide victory in Myanmar as official results trickled in following the weekend’s coronavirus-disrupted election. Millions lined up for hours to cast their ballots on Sunday — only the second national election since the country emerged from outright
