Regional news from Southeast Asia in English — ASEAN politics, economy and diplomacy, covered by Thai PBS World.
Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, is the most visited city in the world so far this year, with around 22 million international arrivals, according to a survey by the Travelness travel blog. More detailed data reveal tourist patterns, such as an average stay of 4.7 nights and an average spend of US$173 per day. Source: Travelness.com Bangkok
The Immigration Department has deployed the automatic passport control gate system (Autogate) at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat immigration gates from August 1st, 2023 and at Da Nang and Cam Ranh passport control. Auto gates will also be used at Phu Quoc from August 15th, 2023, according to the Ministry of Public Security of
Jailed Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been pardoned in five criminal cases, though she still faces 14 others, state media said Tuesday. The announcement was part of an amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent. “Chairman of State Administration Council pardons Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced by the relevant courts,” the broadcast said.
Myanmar’s junta extended the country’s state of emergency by six months on Monday, signalling a delay to elections they had pledged to hold as the military battles anti-coup fighters across the country. The Southeast Asian nation has been ravaged by deadly violence since a coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years
Myanmar’s ruling junta has officially postponed an election promised by August this year after its 2021 coup, state television reported on Monday night. Junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing, in a meeting on Monday with the army-backed National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), extended a state of emergency by six more months. The military had
A bomb blast in southeastern Myanmar killed one person and wounded 12 others on Monday, an official said. Violent clashes have ramped up since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in February 2021, unleashing a bloody crackdown on dissent that has left thousands dead. The junta has been battling anti-coup “People’s Defence
Tourists visiting Ko Lan, a small resort island off Pattaya beach, found to their dismay on Saturday that the sea around the island has turned green and was emitting a foul smell, discouraging many of them from entering the water to escape the scorching sun. Officials from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources assured
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Saturday the country must boost its rice stocks and that he may seek a supply deal with India, worried about the potential impact of El Nino dry weather on the local harvest and about other suppliers. “I’m thinking about the national supply for rice,” Marcos told officials in
Vinfast, a Vietnamese electric car manufacturer under Vingroup, held a ground-breaking ceremony for an electric car factory in North Carolina, US on Friday. The event marked an important step in Vingroup’s strategy for market expansion and brand development. Vinfast’s car factory is the first electric car production facility in North Carolina, and it is also
The pubic in Myanmar are worried that the Kyat is further depreciating, after the announcement that a new 20,000 Kyat bank note denomination will be printed, though Myanmar’s Central Bank (CB) reiterates that the notes will only be used to replace old notes and there should be no concern over inflation. The new note, reportedly
TikTok said it has no plans to roll out a cross-border business in Indonesia as a government minister on Thursday expressed concerns over how reported plans for a new e-commerce push by the firm could flood the country with Chinese products. The short video app, owned by China’s ByteDance, has been working on a program
Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in a 2021 military coup, has been moved from prison to a government building, an official from her party said Friday. Suu Kyi has only been seen once since she was held after the February 1, 2021 putsch — in grainy state media photos from
