The Mekong Memo

Thailand 20260911

August Whitcraft — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 04:00:58 GMT

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Bangkok Puts Up a Tollgate for Imported EVs

The EV Board has approved (in principle) a three-tier excise tax that will penalize fully imported vehicles and reward cars built with local content. The top rate will be higher than the current 10 percent import tax, and the lowest will be reserved for models assembled locally. Excise Department chief Pornchai Thiraveja said the middle tier will be reserved for vehicles brought in for testing or local finishing. Permanent secretary Lavaron Sangsnit says the rates should be in place by the end of this month, but will need to be approved by cabinet. Unlike the EV3.0 and EV3.5 schemes that first pulled Chinese brands into the market, this one has no budget subsidies associated with it. EVs and hybrids made up more than half of new car sales through the first seven months of this year, so the tide against combustion engines is turning. The Board of Investment had cleared $4.59 billion for 189 EV projects by August.

Read more: Nation Thailand (automaker investments), Briefs (regional competition)

PM Pauses Data Centers Despite 7-Day Fast Lane

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's new National Data Center Policy Committee is staring down power requests from developers totaling almost 20,000 megawatts, which is close to Thailand’s current entire electricity consumption. In an attempt to buy some time, the government has asked 49 data centers being built to take a voluntary pause because it doesn’t have any legal power to stop them. Decisions on permits for another 117 projects have been frozen. Four subcommittees are now racing to write rules for power, water, site safety and clean energy. Even against that uninspiring backdrop, however, the NBTC Office is offering an automatic "Type 1" route that promises approval within seven working days. Officials admit that their registry of 35 operating data centers, compiled from 16 agencies, lacks the detail that’s really needed to regulate them effectively.

Read more: Nation Thailand (license rules), TechRepublic (investment boom), Bangkok Tribune (policy gaps)

Government Puts Muscle Into Rooftop Solar

A $1.52 billion rooftop solar subsidy is going to start rolling out next month. The deal will offer households about $1,520 per installation and the opportunity to sell surplus power back into the grid. Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas says three state banks will cover the upfront costs. Electricity authorities will buy the surplus power and use the proceeds to repay the loans. The Interior Ministry is has a target of a million homes for the scheme, but is weighing an increase of that target by half to 1.5 million homes. The government says a five-kilowatt system with modest household use could earn about $30 a month, and the panels should last 25 to 30 years. Tax breaks on some imported components will add another sweetener for installers and suppliers.

Hanwha Ocean Preferred Navy Frigate Builder

Hanwha Ocean’s bid, with the support of Seoul’s defense ministry, DAPA and the ROK Navy, has come out on top as the preferred supplier of the Royal Thai Navy's next frigate. It’s a THB 16.73 billion contract for a single ship in addition to logistics support. The Hanwha Ocean offer beat those from Spain's Navantia, Singapore's ST Engineering, Turkey's ASFAT and TAIS, and Korean rival Hyundai Heavy Industries. Hanwha previously delivered HTMS Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2018, but the proposed ship will break new ground for the builder, as it will be the first build with European partners. France's Naval Group is expected to handle combat management and sensor integration for the OCEAN-40F design, while MBDA will supply Exocet MM40 Block 3c anti-ship missiles. The full terms still have to be negotiated before a final contract can be agreed to.

Airport Rail Link Operator Names Its Price

Asia Era One is willing to keep running Bangkok's Airport Rail Link after its contract expires on September 30, but the price demanded is 60 million baht ($1.7 million) a month for four months. It also wants the right to walk away with 30 days' notice if the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) decides to sue because of the stalled three-airport high-speed rail project. That unbuilt line, which was supposed to connect Don Mueang, Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao, is still the CP-backed operator's main prize. The SRT board is thinking about the proposal after Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn brokered talks to keep the trains running. The fleet has dwindled from nine trains to five or six since maintenance problems started in around 2014. Peak wait times that ought to only be eight to ten minutes can now reach up to 30 or even 45 minutes.

Read more: The Star

Photo by Nehal Patel on Unsplash

Thai, Cambodian Envoys Trade Blame in Geneva

Thai envoy Usana Berananda told the UN Human Rights Council that Bangkok claims no Cambodian territory and accused Phnom Penh of “firing first” on July 24. Cambodia's Ke Sovann responded that Thailand had declared its "Chakrabongse Bhuvanath" military operation a day earlier and accused Thai forces of "salami slicing" the border with razor wire, container barricades and new infrastructure. Sovann referred to the France-Siam treaties and the ICJ's Preah Vihear rulings, and said that that the boundary can’t be replaced by way of unilateral Thai maps or by force.

Sondhi Rallies Crowd at Israeli Embassy

Hundreds gathered outside Israel's Bangkok embassy as veteran activist Sondhi Limthongkul proclaimed four demands. He wants tighter controls on tourist conduct, no protection for offenders facing Thai courts, scrutiny of land deals in Chachoengsao and Chabad centers, in addition to Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law in Gaza. Protesters also questioned nominee arrangements used to hold property and run businesses, especially on Koh Phangan and in Phuket. The embassy shuttered for the morning. Deputy Chief of Mission Rami Teplitski later posted a Thai-language video saying that the mission was taking the concerns seriously. Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow previously warned Ambassador Alona Fisher-Kamm that misconduct by Israeli citizens could damage bilateral ties. More than 277,000 Israelis were counted visiting Thailand in the first eight months of this year, which is a pace about 7 percent higher than during the same period last year.

Read more: AP News (tourist deportation), Khaosod English (protest campaign), Jerusalem Post (embassy response), Ynet News (stay limits)

Scam Compound Tour Includes an Operating Table

Nine months after taking over the Chong Chom scam base on the Cambodian border, the military has taken ASEAN observers and reporters through the site where they were shown an operating table with surgical equipment on the third floor, solitary cells stripped of their cameras, and documents listing "organ trafficking" as the punishment for workers who didn’t meet their scam quotas. The military says Vietnamese and Chinese nationals who were captured while fleeing the compound had “wounds” and suffered severed fingers.

Court Faults Fisheries Department Over Tilapia

The Central Administrative Court says that the Department of Fisheries failed to inspect Charoen Pokphand Foods' research on Blackchin tilapia after given them a permit in 2010, even though it knew the alien species could be a threat to native fish. An outbreak spread through waterways between 2012 and 2016, causing much damage. The court told the department and 17 other agencies to control the fish, declare emergency outbreak zones and offer support to affected residents while at the same time rejecting the government's claim that its 2024-2027 action plan was sufficient. CP Foods has not commented, and the court has not set compensation.

Nestlé Puts CHF 157 Million on Thai Kibble

Nestle is putting more than CHF 157 million (~6.4B THB) into its Rayong-based Purina plant to make more Felix, Friskies, Pro Plan and Purina One product for both local sales and export. Pet food makes up about a fifth of group sales. The company wants to capitalize on the spending by owners of an estimated 350 million cats and dogs in Asia, Oceania and Africa who are trading home-cooked meals for packaged premium food.

Taylor's Schools Buys Four St Andrews Campuses

Taylor's Schools has bought four St Andrews International School campuses from Cognita in its first play beyond Malaysia and Singapore. The deal will grow its network to 10 schools and about 10,000 students. The three Bangkok campuses and the school at Green Valley on the east coast will retain their existing names and staff. CEO Angelina Tee (formerly of Cognita) says boarding and a year-round outdoor education center could follow at Green Valley and that she expects the group to be in control of 15 schools within five years.

Gulftainer Buys Into Bangkok's River Port

UAE port operator Gulftainer has agreed to invest in Suksawat Terminal on the Chao Phraya River in Samut Prakan. It is the group's first investment into Thailand. Gulftainer didn’t publish the price, but it plans to upgrade the barge terminal that feeds cargo to Laem Chabang. The group says the terminal will be the anchor for a broader network of ports, inland logistics, industrial parks and shipping lines.

Ayutthaya Abbot Arrested in 92 Million Baht Temple Case

In a titillating story that has torn through local social media, police have arrested monk Luang Por Chot of Wat Phutthaisawan in connection with more than 92 million baht (about $2.6 million) in allegedly diverted temple funds. That’s not the main reason that the story has caught fire, however. Police say the money was passed to a female associate to help conceal it and the monk has appeared on video in flagrante performing what appear to be rather unorthodox rites. A 2022 Supreme Court ruling classifies abbots appointed to ecclesiastical positions as officials under the Sangha Act, so a money-laundering conviction can carry triple the standard penalty, to say nothing of the social cost of his other indiscretions.

Read more: Khaosod English

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Vietnam 20260910

August Whitcraft — Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:50:47 GMT

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SK Group Pitches a Data Center

SK Group, which has $3.5 billion invested in Vietnam already, delivered a big pitch during National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man's stop in Seoul. Chairman Chey Tae Won put forward a proposal for a large AI data center and floated a "Hanoi Forum" for AI, semiconductors and energy. Deputy PM Ho Quoc Dung also took time for a tour of SK Telecom's Haein GPU Center, where more than 1,000 Nvidia Blackwell B200 chips are powering Seoul's sovereign AI push. Samsung and LG Innotek were also courted. Two-way trade was $89.5 billion last year, and both governments are keen to see $100 billion this year and $150 billion by 2030.

Read more: Vietnam Insiders (trade), Vietnam Insiders (ODA), VnEconomy (possible sites), VnEconomy (Korean investors)

China Now Takes a Quarter of Seafood Exports

Seafood exports were $8 billion in the first eight months of 2026, and that’s an increase of about 12 percent from last year. The buyer mix is changing a little though, and now China and Hong Kong are taking more than a quarter of the total. Those markets were responsible for about about three-fifths of the sector's growth, and it was helped by demand for shrimp, pangasius, and crabs. Sales to the US stayed flat at $1.24 billion, and the EU total also dropped a bit to $749.9 million.

Read more: VnEconomy

Hanoi Asks Paris for EUR235.6M Satellite Loan

To Lam is going from Moscow to Paris, where Hanoi is asking the French government for a EUR235.6 million loan so that it can buy the VNREDsat-2 earth observation satellite. The deal with Airbus has been in limbo for the best part of a decade because of financing hurdles. Macron's most recent (2025) state visit resulted in 15 agreements that were worth about EUR9 billion, and now the France-Vietnam Business Council is looking into the North-South high-speed railway and a resurrected civilian nuclear program. It’s possible that approval of the loan and the un-stalling of the satellite deal after eight years will re-invigorate the relationship.

Read more: Vietnam News (rail and nuclear pitch), Vietnam News (university branch), Tuoi Tre (Paris visit), Vietnam Insiders (trade), Intelligence Online (Airbus financing)

Photo by Hieu Do Quang on Unsplash

Nissha Unwinds Stent Deal After 105 Days

Japan's Nissha bought 60 percent of USM Healthcare Medical Devices Factory in May to build a Southeast Asian contract manufacturing business for cardiology stents and orthopedic devices but it’s already sold the entire stake back to USM. Nissha says its post-merger review uncovered improper bookkeeping involving circular transactions that predated the purchase and was initiated by USM staff without its knowledge. Outside experts are still looking into the thing, but Nissha is trying to figure out the final financial result of the sale. Caveat emptor.

Novaland Sells Assets to Keep Debt Current

Novaland has unloaded four of its assets worth VND11.3 trillion, taking care of almost three-quarters of their VND15.6 trillion disposal plan that’s intended to keep its ~~lights on~~ debt payments current. Five more properties are still for sale; agreements are in place for VND3.9 trillion of them. Standing property inventory stood in excess of 39,000 units during Q2 as buyer interest was down through the month of May. Credit is tighter too; developers sold almost VND4 trillion of bonds in August at an average coupon of 12.2 percent.

Vietnam and Russia Ink Oil Reserve Deal

To Lam and Vladimir Putin have agreed to a framework for building a strategic oil reserve, and its the headline result of Lam's three-day state visit to Moscow. They also opened a laboratory together at the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Center by way of a video link. Lam met Zarubezhneft chief Sergei Kudryashov to talk about their shared four decades of joint oil ventures, including Vietsovpetro, and spoke with AFK Sistema founder Vladimir Yevtushenkov about high-tech investment. Putin dangled visa-free entry for Vietnamese citizens "in the near future" but didn’t go as far as offering any sort of a timetable.

Read more: The Moscow Times (nuclear power), VnEconomy (visit), Voice of Emirates (security)

Grab Drivers Plan a Two-Day Log-Off

A recent story tearing through Vietnam is of the VND19,500 ($0.74) that was left in a local drivers pocket after taking a VND37,000 ($1.41) GrabCar fare. That’s of course, little more than half of what the passenger paid after platform fees, insurance and tax were taken off the top. Grab applies a "flexible app usage fee" to take fees from the drivers that changes with time, location and demand. Drivers say that makes earnings impossible to predict and, as a result, are planning to refuse trips on September 12 and 13 in protest.

Russian Tourists Fill the Beaches

Russia has become Vietnam’s third-largest source of foreign visitors. The first seven months of 2026 saw 863,500 arrivals. That’s almost four times the figure a year earlier. Vietnam Airlines has added a fourth weekly Hanoi-Moscow flight, Vietjet is opening routes from Da Nang and Nha Trang, and Aeroflot will begin flying from Moscow to Phu Quoc in October. Anex Vietnam also expects to carry 13,000 to 15,000 charter tourists to Phu Quoc.

2G Airwave Auction

With the country's 2G networks closing on September 15, the Science and Technology Ministry is auctioning off three paired 900MHz blocks so that they can be put to new use. Bidding for each 15-year license starts at VND1.056 trillion ($40.2 million). Operators will be allowed to buy up to two blocks; they’ll need to put down VND55 billion for each. Viettel has already retired its 3G network, while VinaPhone and MobiFone continue to keep 3G going alongside their 4G and 5G offerings.

Taiwan Runs Its First Trade Deficit

Taiwan ran its first quarterly trade deficit with its southern neighbor in early 2026 as its imports of Vietnamese electrical machinery, appliances and components saw a gain of 173 percent through May. That deficit reverses a decades-old pattern in which Taiwan traditionally sent components south for cheap assembly. Vietnam's share of global AI hardware trade went up from 1.2 percent in 2015 to 12.4 percent in 2025, which HSBC says was the steepest increase by any economy during the decade. Manufacturing and processing were responsible for $17.91 billion in foreign investment in the first half of 2026, almost two-thirds of all new and expanded capital.

Bamboo Airways Ex-Chair Barred Over Tax Debt

The tax authority of Gia Lai has asked immigration police to stop Nguyen Ngoc Trong (more commonly known as “Sam”), from leaving the country until Bamboo Airways ponies up VND44.06 billion ($1.7 million) in back taxes. Sam is listed as the airline’s beneficial owner and held two stints as chairman. The investor group he represented gave the carrier back to former owner FLC Group last year after admitting that its financial and management problems were beyond their ability to handle. He stepped down as chairman in November but remained on the board. Bamboo Airways currently flies a single aircraft and has stopped regular domestic service. The ban is expected to be lifted once the debt is settled.

Read more: VnExpress

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Laos 20260909

August Whitcraft — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 02:07:18 GMT

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Vientiane Raids Net Wins in Scam Crackdown

Police stormed the Yuzhou Smart Hotel in Xaythany District, nabbed 43 people and took 468 mobile phones. It was one of four raids recently in Vientiane Capital. Chinese nationals made up the bulk of the numbers, followed by Burmese suspects. Police say they also found ketamine packets and nitrous oxide tanks at two other locations. The tempo’s barely let up since the ST Vegas case, as a seventh transfer batch of 34 Thai nationals crossed the Friendship Bridge, leaving only seven of the original 373 Thai suspects still in Lao custody. There have been more than 6,000 nationwide arrests since January, running near 1,000 a month from June through August. No ringleaders have been identified so far.

Read more: Laotian Times (ketamine raid), Laotian Times (bridge transfer)

Flood Insurance Pays Fast, But Provinces Beg

More than a million USD was sent to Lao accounts within two business days after updated impact data triggered the SEADRIF Insurance Company's response, which affected more than 375,000 people nationwide. The payout, split between the government and the UN World Food Programme, has brought disbursements for this flood cycle to $2.3 million. Even as the money was being sent, Luang Namtha, Oudomxay and Savannakhet were publicly asking for donations after floods affected more than 2,400 households in Luang Namtha district, 81 villages in Oudomxay, and 177 villages and 40,200 people in Savannakhet. Social media users have asked why officials are asking for donations when a national disaster fund exists.

Read more: Laotian Times (province flood toll), Laotian Times (rain forecast), Insurance Asia (policy terms)

Four Deals in Astana, One Rail Dream

President Thongloun Sisoulith became the first Lao head of state to visit Kazakhstan, and in the process, put his hand to four agreements that cover political consultations, prosecutorial cooperation, digital government, and a sister-city deal between Vientiane and Astana. The biggest item didn’t get a signature yet, though; President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev offered Lao freight carriers access to Kazakhstan's logistics hub in Xi'an and floated the idea of a corridor that would run Lao goods up the China-Laos Railway, through Kazakhstan's Trans-Caspian route and the onward to European markets. That route currently handles about 85 percent of continental China-Europe freight. Tokayev suggested likely cargo would be Kazakh grain, oilseeds, feed and meat heading south, and Lao coffee and rubber heading north. No transport or customs agreement was signed to make any of that regular, but the opportunity for both governments to start writing one is now open.

Read more: Times of Central Asia (export target), Trend (route growth), Astana Times (investment center), Astana Times

SG Adds Lao Forests to Its Carbon Shopping List

A binding Article 6 carbon-credit agreement with Singapore makes Laos the fourth ASEAN country to sign such a deal, after Agriculture and Environment Minister Linkham Douangsavanh and Singapore's Grace Fu approved the agreement by video. Singapore will direct 5% of proceeds into climate adaptation projects and cancel 2% of authorized credits when they’re first issued, removing them permanently from any country's tally. Under the 2025 carbon-credit trading rules, at least 10% of credits from international projects are required to stay in-country, and payments need to run through the Bank of Laos or domestic commercial banks. Laos adds some of the region's densest forest cover to the deal; it is aiming for 70 percent national coverage by 2035, which would turn reforestation and farm projects into hard currency as it gets ready to lose concessional financing tied to its status as a least-developed-country.

Read more: The Star (Singapore deal), Laotian Times (emissions targets)

Luang Prabang Economy Grows Even As Tourists Vanish

Luang Prabang's economy was able to manage 3.9 percent growth in the first half of 2026 even though tourist arrivals were brutalized by a drop of almost half compared to last year. The province produced LAK 11.67 trillion ($520 million) in output, which is more than half its annual target. Ag and forestry made up two fifths of the performance and the Laos-China Railway did much of the rest of the work, as it delivered 1.3 million passenger trips and more than 564,000 tonnes of freight through the province over the six month period. Provincial authorities have also forwarded a revised UNESCO conservation plan to the agency and are expanding their the tax base to include convenience stores, restaurants, cafes, hotels and guesthouses before the year end.

Read more: Laotian Times

Photo by Marcus Dall Col on Unsplash

Vat Phou Returns to State Control

Ying Sokxay ran ticket booths, golf carts and parking at Vat Phou for 15 years before their concession expired. The company asked for more time, but Champasak denied the request by taking advantage of the 2021 National Heritage Law that bans commercial deals on national heritage sites without a ministerial sign-off. So, now the provincial Department of Information, Culture, and Tourism gets to run day-to-day operations at the 1,000-year-old temple complex, which saw nearly 750,000 visitors last year. Officials say sanitation and visitor-service upgrades are on the way.

Read more: Laotian Times

Five Copycat Brands Banned

The Food and Drug Department banned five cosmetic brands, Vaseilina, Care Man, Lvx, Clsorup, and Leimiya & Shampoo, after authorities said they came into the country unregistered and carried packaging that mimics well-known products. We sincerely hope that the loss of access to these products does not bring inconvenience to our readers. Sellers had been flogging them on social media with “unusually” low prices.

Read more: Laotian Times

PLA Medics Arrive for Peace Train Drill

A 150-member Chinese military medical contingent arrived in Vientiane for a 17-day exercise with the Lao People's Army. It’s being called "Peace Train-2026," and it’s the sixth edition since 2017. More than 700 participant will be rehearsing a super typhoon rescue scenario using medical trains and unmanned rescue equipment. After the exercise wraps up, the team is expected to move on to Vientiane, Savannakhet, Champasak and Attapeu provinces for a spell of patient treatments and academic lectures.

Read more: Global Times, Chinamil, Bastillepost

Beijing and Vientiane Improve Police Ties

Chinese Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong hosted his Lao counterpart, Vanthong Kongmany, in Beijing this week where the two of them agreed to more cooperation on China-Laos Railway security in addition to tamping down on online gambling, telecom fraud, and the illicit drug scene. Vanthong thanked Beijing for its "long-standing support and assistance." Wang also met Uzbekistan's internal affairs minister Aziz Tashpulatov in his security push.

Read more: The Star

Cluster Munitions Treaty Comes Back to Vientiane

Vientiane is hosting the Third Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an event that will bring more than 500 delegates back to the city that hosted the treaty's first meeting of states parties. Deputy PM Thongsavan Phomvihane, who also chairs the country's UXO/Mine Action authority, said the country is "100 percent ready" for the task. Organizers will be expecting visiting donors to pony up cash to fund more clearance work and help open farmland that remains too dangerous to plow.

Read more: The Star

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Myanmar 20260908

August Whitcraft — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 02:11:26 GMT

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Min Aung Hlaing Takes His Roadshow to Hanoi

Myanmar's president finished a three-day visit to Vietnam on Sunday, his third stop in ASEAN since he took office in April and part of a campaign to (try to) normalize relations with a bloc that has kept him excluded from top-level meetings since 2021. To Lam and Min Aung Hlaing made a show of putting defense and security forward as "key pillar" of their relationship, with military training, officer swaps, search-and-rescue work and information sharing about cross-border crime all in the mix. Viettel, Vietnam's (military-run) telecoms group, now runs Mytel with Myanmar's military-connected partners. The delegation took time for a tour of VinFast's Hai Phong EV plant and got a pitch on digital infrastructure and cybersecurity. Despite the rosy stories, though, the money picture is less… inspiring. Two-way commerce dropped from $853 million in 2020 to $590 million in 2025, then accelerated pace a little in order to find $335 million in the first half of 2026, but that’s versus the talk of a billion dollar target. Vietnamese firms are invested in 107 active projects in Myanmar. The President’s next stop is Cambodia.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (rights criticism), Vietnam News (investment total), The Diplomat (visit count), QDND (trade target), Independent (Russia and Kazakhstan trips)

Turk Ask Council to Send Generals to The Hague

UN human rights chief Volker Turk told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that member states should be sending Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. He said that credible sources have verified more than 1,200 civilian deaths, and open-source figures are even worse, with suggestions that the real figure could be more than 3,000. Turk also called for a stop to arms, ammunition, jet fuel and dual-use transfers "where there is a clear risk" they will allow for violations. A separate OHCHR document reported on 2,353 instances of Rohingya forced labor in northern Rakhine in the month of January. The grim findings included 75 counts involving children (some as young as six), as well as a booming (and unregulated) rare earths mining industry in Kachin and Shan states. The UK says military-driven displacement has passed 3.6 million. Despite Turk’s pleas, no state has yet filed an ICC referral.

Read more: Yenisafak (non-refoulement warning), Anadolu (IIMM findings), ReliefWeb (Rohingya exodus), OHCHR (rare earths), UK Government (UK statement)

Navy Triples Force to Reopen Chinese Nickel Plant

A 38-vessel Navy convoy arrived in Singu a couple of days ago, and the force is nearly three times the size of the 14- or 15-vessel flotilla (accounts differ) that left the Gaw Wein jetty in Mandalay on August 21. The earlier convoy lost seven boats to Kachin Independence Army attacks near Shwegu, and about 100 personnel surrendered. Only seven boats carrying about 800 troops in addition to weapons and food arrived in besieged Bhamo after Myanmar Air Force jets ran strikes to clear the river. The new convoy is trying to push further upstream to Tigyaing, where China Nonferrous Metal Mining and Construction's Tagaung nickel processing plant has been sitting idle since a People's Defence Force takeover in July 2024. Regime forces have retaken Tigyaing and Singu, 58 miles north of Mandalay, but there’s no confirmed date for the plant’s re-opening.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (ambush), DVB (convoy confirmation)

UNHCR Rejects Role in Malaysia's Deportation Plan

Malaysia is expected to load 1,476 Myanmar nationals onto two Navy warships and a hospital ship later this month, and the UN refugee agency says it wants nothing to do with it. UNHCR stands by its position that conditions in Myanmar are not sufficient for a safe return and referred to customary international law that prohibits sending people back to places where their rights are at risk. The sailing is expected to be the first phase of a program that will eventually include about 5,000 people. The shipment is still planned despite communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil saying last month that deportees would not be sent back "if they would either be persecuted or their lives would be threatened."

Filmmaker Charged Over Drone Strike on Plane

American filmmaker Matthew Aaron VanDyke, whose 2014 documentary "Point and Shoot" won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, is currently in Delhi's Tihar Jail after an NIA court approved his interrogation over a drone strike on a Myanmar passenger plane. The (Indian) National Investigation Agency says VanDyke and six Ukrainians ran drone-warfare training for ethnic armed groups after they crossed into Myanmar without the required permits. According to the agency, at least two FPV kamikaze drones sporting RPG-type warheads hit and damaged a Myanmar National Airlines ATR-72-600 at Myitkyina airport as passengers were boarding for a flight to Mandalay. No injuries were reported.

Read more: The Tribune (flight details), Independent (war toll), India Today (mercenary framing)

Photo by Jade Marchand on Unsplash

H&M Supplier Shuts Yangon Plant, 3k Jobs Gone

Teng Hui, a garment supplier to retailer H&M, has shuttered its factory in Yangon with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs. The exit is the latest in a run of foreign brands getting their garment sourcing out of Myanmar. Garments are one of the last industries that still bringing dollars in despite Western sanctions, so the loss will be felt by more than just the people who have most recently lost their jobs.

Yangon Dams Overflow

Nga Moe Yeik Reservoir, 26 miles north of Yangon, overflowed by 2.5 feet on September 3, sending creek water into seven Hlegu Township wards. Mahura Dam is spilling 1.5 feet over its spillway and Paunglin Dam is nearing full capacity, so now nine more townships are under flash flood warnings as thunderstorms continue to be forecast in Yangon and Bago through tomorrow.

Hpa-An Checkpoints Become Conscription Traps

Soldiers at Hpa-An's checkpoints and Thanlwin River bridges are stopping masons, shop clerks and commuters to inspect ID cards, then taking the men aside to get them conscripted. It seems that showing an ID card and proving local residence is no longer always enough to dodge the impromptu drafts. Rural villages have not yet seen open raids to grab manpower, but quotas have to be filled every three to four months, and when locals refuse to go, villages sometimes are paying migrant workers to serve as substitutes. Karen State's government has denied social media reports that Chief Minister Saw Myint Oo told officials to issue military summonses and authorize arrests if quotas ran short. Separately, in Mandalay, workshops and small businesses are losing staff as young workers quit or leave town rather than risking callup under the junta’s conscription law. Owners are reporting empty workbenches and delayed orders as young men disappear from the workforce as they go into hiding.

Read more: Karen News (checkpoints), The Irrawaddy (Mandalay conscription)

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Cambodia 20260907

August Whitcraft — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 04:05:32 GMT

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Bangkok Tears Up Thaksin's Oil Deal

Bangkok's cabinet scrapped a 2001 maritime MoU with Cambodia, taking advantage of Article 56 in the 1969 Vienna Convention to claim the right to exit a treaty with no withdrawal clause. For nearly 25 years the document was the only framework that governed the management of the 27,000 square kilometer Overlapping Claims Area, which is estimated to hold 1.6 billion barrels of oil and 17 trillion cubic feet of gas. Phnom Penh condemned the move, said it was a breach of international law, and claims it will work to get conciliation under UNCLOS Annex V. The Thai Prime Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Bhumjaithai Party, swept February's elections on a hardline nationalist platform.

Phnom Penh Rolls Out a Crisis Package

On Friday, Economy and Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth introduced a $1.22 billion economic intervention program that he says will work as a cushion against the battering of both global and regional shocks. July inflation was 5.5 percent, which was the biggest cost of living squeeze seen in years. The World Bank reckons a 10 percent rise in fuel prices would push the poverty rate up 1.4 percent, forcing families that already spend most of their income on food and transport to the brink. The government did not say how the $1.22 billion will be divided between direct relief, business support, or infrastructure.

Read more: Khmer Times, Khmer Times (electricity cost)

End of COVID-era Loan Forbearance

The National Bank of Cambodia has rejected a bank and microfinance industry ~~plea~~ request to keep COVID-era forbearance rules through to the end of this year. The change will bring an end to a practice that currently allows lenders to classify restructured loans as “performing.” No prizes for anyone who guesses what comes next. Gross NPLs were already 9.6 percent through 1H 2026, up from 8.3 percent at the end of 2025, and the ratio is expected to keep moving higher as banks (are forced to) reclassify loans previously parked off the bad-debt books. The IMF had repeatedly pushed for the change because the forbearance has been hiding the real state of bank balance sheets. Borrowers in genuine distress will still be able to negotiate restructuring, but without the benefit of the regulatory shortcut.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Garment Unions Reopen Wage Fight at $210

Cambodia's National Minimum Wage Council opened 2027 talks on Tuesday, and garment unions are pushing past last year's bump that brought the floor up to $210 monthly. Labor Minister Heng Sour said the first meeting is simply a data review, not a negotiation, and expects four tripartite meetings on September 14, 18, 28 and 30 to settle on a workable number. The wage has been creeping up in small steps ($200 in 2023, $204 in 2024, $206 in 2025, $210 for 2026), but unions (to say nothing of the workers themselves) say the increases haven't kept pace with the cost of living. Employers have already tried to warn unions against "excessively high" figures, and Sour says the 19% US export tariff (down from 49% earlier), is a reason to weigh competitiveness alongside inflation.

Read more: CamboJA News

Thai Helicopter Strays Into Battambang Airspace

A Royal Thai Air Force helicopter flew about 400 metres into Battambang province near the Daung International Border Checkpoint last week, in a move that resulted in a protest from Phnom Penh. Border fortifications, razor wire, shipping containers, permanent structures, and troop movements, have kept almost 20,000 Cambodian civilians in "waiting villages" instead of the homes they were told they could get back to under the December 27 truce, but eight-plus months on there’s been little progress for them.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (grievances timeline), Phnom Penh Post (senator rebuttal), Phnom Penh Post (attaché briefing), Phnom Penh Post (UNCLOS conciliation), Khmer Times (damage assessment)

Photo by SAM sokkolinmony on Unsplash

Cambodia and US Revive Angkor Sentinel Drills

Cambodia's army confirmed Friday that "Exercise Angkor Sentinel 2027" will be run again in February. It will be the first joint drill with US forces since Phnom Penh froze the program in 2017. The announcement comes after Hun Manet's August 14 meeting with Elbridge Colby, the third-ranking official at the Department of Defense, and a separate sitdown between US Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Steve Koehler and armed forces chief Gen. Vong Pisen, who floated reviving a suspended bilateral maritime exercise too. Washington's underlying worry hasn't changed - China bankrolled an upgrade to the Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, and the US still suspects Beijing has been given secret access privileges there, but it’s a story that officials in Phnom Penh keep saying is fiction.

Hun Manet Tours Cleared Scam Compounds

Hun Manet strolled through an emptied Dara Sakor compound in Koh Kong, taking a look at some of the sites which are reportedly under “round-the-clock” surveillance. The visit was a feather in the cap of a 14-month campaign that resulted in the closure of 86 compounds, the freezing of more than $300 million, and the appearance of nearly 4,000 defendants from 29 countries in front of the courts. Fifteen officials are facing charges including a former Foreign Ministry director-general, a deputy prosecutor, and a deputy Phnom Penh police chief. The operators have not retired, however. Networks have moved on to Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (repatriation count), SCMP (regional loss estimates), Asian News Network (locations inspected), Khmer Times (CCOS follow-up), Asian News Network (device seizure tally)

Ex-FM Official Sold 6,000 Visas to Traffickers

A royal decree has acted as shepherd’s crook for Tho Samnang as Foreign Ministry adviser after he confessed to a visa-theft scheme that likely netted millions on the black market. The former director-general of the ministry's Legal, Consular and Border Affairs Department admitted stealing 10,000 C-class visas, which are paper stickers given to Cambodia's NGO workers, and selling 6,000 of them to human traffickers. Tho says he destroyed the other 4,000, but without any proof, authorities are still looking for them. The visas don’t have any digital record and will pass through Immigration with no vetting, gaps the ministry now says it will close.

Read more: Khmer Times ($3M estimate), UCA News (growth forecast cut)

Logging Roads Breach Dam Zone in the Cardamoms

Satellite images show logging roads as far as 3 kilometers past the authorized 2,898-hectare reservoir zone at the Stung Russei Chrum Kandal dam, which is inside Phnom Kravanh National Park. That’s one of the largest protected rainforests and is home to Asian elephants in addition to the critically endangered Sunda pangolin. A sawmill is outside the permitted boundary, and it is apparently fed by a network of small roads that match no publicly available construction plans. Residents of the O'Soam commune say checkpoints staffed by men in RCAF uniforms (the developer says they’re for “forest protection”), now also block waterways that they used to use for fishing.

Jakarta's Scam-Victim Fund Runs Dry in Phnom Penh

At least 475 Indonesian nationals are sleeping rough in a warehouse at the old Pochentong Airport, as they wait for passports, or plane tickets (or both), after getting out of scam compounds during the crackdown. Many entered Cambodia illegally to work in the centers, overstayed their visas once they expired, and now have no money or documents that would allow them leave. The Indonesian embassy had been covering food and emergency travel papers, but stopped all that on August 30, saying it had run out of money.

Seven Years for a CLV-DTA Protest

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has sentenced Thy Thorn, Mean Chanthon and Soueng Kunthea to seven years each. the decision closes out nearly all convictions from the 100-plus arrests that came along with the 2024 protests against the CLV-DTA pact, a deal that the government has since withdrawn from. All three of the recently sentenced had already spent more than two years in pretrial detention; Chanthon and Kunthea were deported from Thailand in November 2024 before being charged. Defense lawyer Son Chum Choun said that the social media posts were "constructive criticism," not treason, and plans to appeal.

Read more: CamboJA News

LOLC Prices KH’s First CGCC-Guaranteed Bond

LOLC (Cambodia) closed a KHR 80 billion ($20 million) bond on September 6. It’s notable because it is the first Cambodian corporate issue that comes with a guarantee from the Credit Guarantee Corporation of Cambodia. The offering was oversubscribed, major local financial institutions wanted to get in on the strength of CGCC's khAAA rating instead of LOLC's. Yuanta Securities (Cambodia) was lead manager in running the deal, the bond will list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange. CGCC was accredited as the market's bond guarantor in January 2024, but this is the first issue priced under that agreement. It will be lost on few readers that it took more than two and a half years.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

CSX Rallies 18% Through August

The CSX Index was up 18% in August to close at 541.02, tipping 560.09 on August 26, its highest reading since March 2022. The lift brought year-to-date gains to nearly 28%. Average daily trading value roughly quadrupled to about $800,000, compared to July’s $230,000 turnover. New account openings numbered 2,006, more than double January's 949, and active traders were reported 7,901, up 28% from July. The exchange is crediting institutional buyers for the liquidity boost.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

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Thailand 20260904

August Whitcraft — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:28:43 GMT

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New Rules Cut Visa-free Stays to 30 Days

Starting September 15, the 60-day visa exemption for 93 countries disappears and a shorter allowance will take its place. Sixty countries/ territories will go back to 30 days, Seychelles and Mauritius get 15, and 21 nations will lose visa-free entry altogether. Existing deals still cover China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Laos, Macao, Mongolia, Russia and Vietnam. Land-border crossers using the 30-day exemption face a new limit of two entries each calendar year, with Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore exempted. That change is a direct shot at the visa-run circuit that has kept some long-stay expats legal on paper for years.

Read more: TAT News (gazette rules), Jerusalem Post, VisasNews (countries list)

Data Center Permits Frozen On Diesel Stash Find

Officials found about 200,000 liters of unlicensed fuel at a data center building on Rama IX Road, more than thirteen times the 15,000-liter “no-permit-required” limit. The Department of Energy Business made a police complaint, and Bangkok has frozen three data center applications while it figures out how the fuel got there. Government spokeswoman Rachada Dhanadirek said some operators have been applying for construction permits as warehouses, then installing servers and running the buildings as data centers in a bid to get around rules. The PM has put Deputy PM Ekniti Nitithanprapas in charge of a new Data Center Board to write a rulebook for clean energy, water, urban planning and safety, data security, and community impact instead of leaving the job split between ministries.

Read more: Nation Thailand (new board), Thai Enquirer (investment context)

Tourism Revenue Tops a Trillion

Thailand has already banked more than a 1 trillion baht from 20.81 million foreign visitors. China is still at the top of the source-market list with 3.52 million visitors, followed by Malaysia at 2.63 million, India at 1.53 million, Russia at 1.18 million, and South Korea at 765,842. Late-August numbers were a little shaky. Weekly arrivals fell almost 12 percent to 491,456, with Chinese visitors down almost a quarter (although Malaysians were up almost 19 percent). Officials expect the next week to look similar as summer holidays wind down in Europe and East Asia.

Read more: Khaosod English

US Sailors Find Pattaya, Police Sweep Soi 6

The USS Abraham Lincoln pulled into Laem Chabang covered with rust and mottled paint after a marathon 286 days at sea, and its 5,000 sailors and Marines surged ashore with nine months of unspent salary. Mayor Poramet Ngampichet thinks each visitor's daily spend will be between 1,000 and 3,000 baht (~$30 - $90), and said the five-day stop should throw about $3 million into the local economy. Police prepared for the visit with an overnight beachfront sweep that resulted in 25 arrests for public prostitution, though the mayor insisted the operation was not related to the Americans' arrival. Soi 6, Soi 6/1 and Soi 7 have been declared off-limits to crew, but Walking Street is open with a giant illuminated sign welcoming the carrier.

Read more: Independent (admiral), The National (escort ships), The Guardian (crew conditions), BBC (shopping), Ynet (crew restrictions)

Photo by Mike Swigunski on Unsplash

Jailed Activist Stops Water After Bail Denied

Activist Promsorn Veerathamjaree stopped drinking water on August 31, two months into a hunger strike to demand bail on charges of royal defamation. His mother had suggested the court employ an electronic monitoring bracelet, monthly check-ins, a curfew, a travel ban, or a court-appointed guardian so her son would be able to care for his father, who has Alzheimer's and other conditions. The Supreme Court denied the request. A prison psychologist has spoken with Promsorn, and prison volunteers check on him twice a day. He is facing six counts of royal defamation, including two that are currently before the Supreme Court and two in an Appeal Court.

Runners Lap the Election Commission for 229 Senators

More than a hundred protesters ran 2.29 kilometers around a track inside the Election Commission's building, throwing balls into boxes labeled with senators accused of buying their way into office in 2024. Organized by legal watchdog iLaw, the sports-day protest also featured badminton nets held down by boxes featuring the faces of Bhumjaithai cabinet ministers connected to the scheme. The Election Commission's investigation committee found grounds to refer all 229 suspects to the Supreme Court, whereupon a sub-committee cleared them despite public phone logs, money transfers, and witness testimony. The Human Rights Lawyers Association said the commission has a duty to prosecute wherever reasonable evidence of fraud exists, but apparently there is little political will to do so.

Korean Air Signs On to Fix Black Hawks

Korean Air and state-owned Thai Aviation Industries signed a teaming agreement in Busan to manage depot maintenance of Royal Thai Army UH-60 Black Hawks. The hopes is that the agreement can be later expanded to cover other aircraft in the military fleet. Korean Air brings five decades and more than 5,500 military aircraft worth of depot maintenance work, in addition to a UH-60 manufacturing history since 1991. Thai Aviation Industries brings the local network and infrastructure, and will get technical training and standardized procedures in return. Korean Air thinks Thailand could / should be a base for getting other Southeast Asian military MRO clients.

TAGTHAi Wallet Live at Five Bangkok Malls

TAGTHAi's Easy Pay is now in service at ICONSIAM, Siam Paragon, Emporium, EmQuartier and MBK. The app allows foreign tourists top up in baht, scan Thai QR codes at the till (via KBank rails), and collect a 300-baht Bangkok Pass discount in addition to a free 150-baht BTS One-Day Pass on same-day spending. Might be worth checkin out if you’re visiting the city.

Vietnam 20260903

August Whitcraft — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 02:50:56 GMT

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Hanoi Trades Tax Holidays for Talent and Tech

Politburo Resolution No. 10 tells foreign investors the old deal is off. Hanoi is done competing firstly on tax breaks now that the Global Minimum Tax has more or less removed the advantage that approach previously brought. Instead, officials are offering to co-fund infrastructure, subsidize R&D and technology transfers, and pay to train the engineers needed by multinationals, while fast-tracking visas and work permits for semiconductor, AI and data center projects. Registered FDI was $38.06 billion in the first seven months of 2026, up 58 percent from the year prior, and disbursed FDI was $15.2 billion, the highest seven-month total in five years.

Read more: VnEconomy

Samsung's Plants Print More, Keep Less

Samsung's four plants raked in $17.3 billion of Q2 revenue, up 20 percent, but combined profit was down almost a fifth to $996 million as its smartphone business took a hit. Thai Nguyen's SEVT, the flagship phone plant, saw profit drop to $361 million from $571 million, as margins were slashed from 9.1 percent to 4.8 percent. Bac Ninh's SEV lost almost a quarter of its profit (margins similarly down to 5.8 percent from 9.2 percent). The pressure came from upstream, as global smartphone shipments dropped 11 percent in the weakest Q2 since 2013. A memory chip shortage also pushed component costs up. Not every plant suffered however - display maker SDV saw its best margins since Q3 2023, and HCMC's SEHC grew profit more than 20 percent to $94 million on $1.5 billion of revenue.

Deputy Health Minister Detained in Bribery Case

Deputy Health Minister Tran Van Thuan, 56, has been held on a bribery charge under Clause 4, Article 354 of the Penal Code. That makes him the highest-ranking person caught so far in the Viet My Medical investigation. Thuan, an oncologist who ran K Hospital before joining the ministry in 2020, is accused in a case that came to light in July with the arrests of Viet My chairman Bui Chan Phuong, director Ha Van Nam, and accounting chief Tran Thi Hong Hanh on smuggling and accounting charges. Phuong ran three companies in Vietnam, five in Singapore and three in Hong Kong, cycling medical equipment and drugs through the offshore network to inflate prices before selling them on to Vietnamese hospitals. Police are still tracing the money and other officials involved.

CP Vietnam Cracks Korean Chicken Market

C.P. Vietnam sent its first shipment of processed chicken to South Korea after more than half a decade of effort that began with the $250 million CPV Food Binh Phuoc complex. The company was required to fill out two questionnaires of about 1,000 pages each and hosted South Korean quarantine and food safety inspectors on-site for half a year under an eight-step assessment. The market opened when Seoul and Hanoi each allowed two companies to trade processed chicken, and C.P. Vietnam was the first Vietnamese firm to do what was needed to get a foot in the door. Its chicken now ships to eight markets, including Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia.

Read more: Vietnam Investment Review (plant), VnEconomy (approval), VnExpress (next steps)

Qualcomm Wants Vietnam in Its AI Top Three

Cristiano Amon told General Secretary To Lam that Qualcomm is treating Vietnam as a "high-priority" in its Asia plans and hopes to make the country its third-largest AI R&D hub. The chipmaker already runs an R&D center in Hanoi and has worked with Viettel and VinSmart for two decades already. Lam wanted more, though, pushing for more technology transfer, management know-how, and ties to Vietnamese universities/ suppliers so local firms move up the value chain instead of just playing host foreign engineers. Qualcomm's interests fit Politburo Resolution No. 10 (mentioned in the first story, above), which is moving incentives from tax breaks toward R&D and talent development.

Read more: VnEconomy

Photo by Ammie Ngo on Unsplash

Toyota Commits $283M to EVs in Phu Tho

Phu Tho's provincial government handed Toyota Motor Vietnam an amended investment certificate as it upgraded its factory there to a $283 million project with capacity for about 52,000 vehicles a year. The new permit adds electrified vehicle assembly to a plant that has spent decades building gasoline-powered Camrys and Vios sedans, in addition to the stamping and painting workshops meant to support future CKD models. Construction is expected to start in May, which puts Toyota years behind VinFast, whose EVs are already on the road.

Read more: VnEconomy

Tay Ninh Gets $3.5B Data Center Pitch

A three-party consortium of SAIGONTEL, World Vista United, and SAIF Eagle II gave Tay Ninh's People's Committee a Letter of Interest for a data center built to Tier IV specs, including “5 nines” uptime, direct liquid and immersion cooling, and racks dense enough to draw 150kW each. The pitch foresees latency of less than 18 milliseconds to Singapore, which is an indication that AI workloads are in the crosshairs. No permits have been issued and no financing has closed yet, however, so for now it is just a letter of interest. Construction is expected to be started late this year with commercial operations starting next year.

Dong Nai to Build $2.29B Airport Metro Link

A government decision is giving Dong Nai Province, not HCMC, the job of running a 44.5-km metro extension to Long Thanh Airport as a public-private partnership. The VND60.26 trillion ($2.29 billion) build would be done in two phases, first a 7.1-km stretch from Suoi Tien to the new administrative center, then a further 36.3 km to the airport. It will require about VND4.32 trillion in resettlement costs to buy land and move people out of the way. Construction is slated for 2026 to 2030, which would get it open about six years after the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien line started as the city's only metro. Long Thanh airport itself is expected to open on December 1.

Read more: VnExpress

Crypto Rule-Breaking Costs

Decree 284/2026 took effect Tuesday, with fines of VND200 million ($7,671) for mishandling crypto account data and a mechanism to allow regulators to suspend trading for up to 12 months for repeat anti-money-laundering failures. A skipping of customer identity checks will attract fines of up to VND120 million; operating without internal AML policies gets a VND200 million ceiling, in addition to the forced surrender of illicit gains. Chainalysis estimates 2025 taxable crypto activity in Vietnam at $8.1 billion, which is equal to about nine percent of the government's $89.9 billion expected revenue and the sixth-highest ratio on the planet. Payments account for $5.2 billion of that, nearly two-thirds of the total, dwarfing $1.8 billion in profits and $1.1 billion in income.

Read more: Tuoitre, VnEconomy (global ranking)

Hanoi Wants All Permits Online by 2027

Resolution 258/NQ-CP is putting the order in to make every “eligible” administrative procedure available by way of an online portal by sometime next year. Paperwork will be expected to be submitted only once and can be reused between agencies in a push that will support the government's double-digit growth hopes through 2030. The Ministry of Finance is also rewriting the 2017 SME law, which would raise the revenue threshold for SME status to VND400 billion ($15.7 million) and allow micro-enterprises with revenue under VND10 billion pay tax on turnover instead of profits. Neither change will affect the cost of shuttering a company - dissolving a long-dormant company can run to costs of as much as VND100 million ($3,800) once back taxes, license fees and late-filing penalties are considered, which is about 20 times the cost of what it typically costs to get a company registered in the first place.

Read more: VnEconomy (Resolution 258 text), Vietnam Insiders (SME law draft), Tuoitre (dissolution costs)

SHB Dangles 9.2%

SHB pushed its six-month deposit rate to 9.2 percent, up 0.2% in two weeks, even though Agribank pays just four percent for the same term and Vietcombank offers a relatively paltry 3.5 percent online. VPBank raised its six-month online rate to 8.8 percent. The State Bank of Vietnam is pushing commercial lenders to funnel cash toward small and medium businesses, with 12 banks registering VND408 trillion ($15.6 billion) in credit programs. Lending rates for SMEs have dropped 0.2 to 0.7 percentage point, even as deposit costs have been climbing. What these rates might tell about the health of the system will be left as an exercise for the reader.

Can Tho Airport Cuts Fees to Win Back Airlines

Can Tho International Airport now runs a grand total of zero international routes, even thought the Department of Construction says it has the capacity to handle more traffic than it currently has. The proposed fix is a two-year, 50-percent cut in takeoff, landing, and air traffic control fees. The Ministry of Finance killed an earlier plan to subsidize airlines directly as it said the idea was inconsistent with the State Budget Law. City officials are betting that tourism might be able to do what subsidies couldn’t. Can Tho brought in 10.5 million visitors through the end of August, but the bigger threat is Long Thanh, the new airport being built outside Ho Chi Minh City which is, of course, aimed squarely at international routes.

Autonomous Vehicle Trials at Hoa Lac

The Hanoi People's Committee signed off on a 24-month trial allowing for autonomous buses, robotaxis and delivery robots to be unleashed at Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park. The vehicles will use LiDAR, HD 2D and 3D maps and AI on an 11.5 km route. Buses get an eight-passenger cap, robotaxis four. Speeds are limited to 40 km/h, and operations will be suspended during heavy rain, fog, thunderstorms or flooding. Each vehicle needs a licensed safety supervisor onboard ready to grab the wheel. Registration, license-plate and inspection rules will be waived inside the zone, and commercial fares are banned for the entire trial. The Department of Science and Technology says it will evaluate results after the 24-month window before deciding next steps.

Read more: VnExpress

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Laos 20260902

August Whitcraft — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:57:39 GMT

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Floods Swamp Boten Border Crossing

Flash floods swamped the Boten Special Economic Zone and the China border checkpoint area, sending water into homes, offices and farmland in 34 villages before the provincial committee declared it a disaster zone. National Route 13 North between the Oudomxay border and the Boten-China crossing has been closed because of landslides and washouts, and Lao Airlines has stopped Vientiane-Luang Namtha flights (no date for resuming the flight’s been shared yet). In Oudomxay, 74 villages and more than 3,800 households are still without power as blocked roads have hampered repair crews.

Read more: Laotian Times (flights), Laotian Times (power outages), Asian News Network (evacuations)

Central Bank Leashes Foreign Loans

Bank of Laos Decision No. 707 requires anyone outside the regulated banking sector, from shareholders extending intercompany loans to companies issuing offshore bonds, to get sign-off from the Foreign Exchange Management Department before moving any money. Commercial banks will not be able to credit an incoming loan or process an outward repayment without the approval either. Companies that earn cash mostly in foreign currency are able to borrow up to three-quarters of registered capital, kip-earners can get half. Public debt was around 85 percent of GDP in May, according to the Asian Development Bank, and the IMF expects it to ease toward three-quarters by the end of 2026.

Read more: VDB Loi (loan rules), Laotian Times (debt target)

Electricity Pushes Inflation to 7.7%

Consumer prices were up 7.7 percent in August, slightly above the 7.6 percent reported for July, as housing, water, electricity and cooking fuel climbed more than 30 percent year on year. That comes after July's almost comical 91.5 percent year-on-year increase in power prices. The eight-month average is 7.9 percent, uncomfortably well above the government's target and edging toward the Asian Development Bank's 9.8 percent forecast for the year. Vientiane is still looking for six percent growth this year, but these numbers will continue to make that a challenge - the ADB expects four percent, and the World Bank says 3.8 percent.

Read more: Laotian Times

China Got to Rare Earth Offtake First

Satellite mapping by the Stimson Center has found dozens of new rare earth mining sites have opened since 2022 in Xieng Khouang and Houaphanh. Geologists think the ground there can offer up about 600,000 tonnes of rare earth oxides. The valuable bits are mostly heavy elements, dysprosium, terbium and yttrium, that are used to make magnets needed in EV motors and wind turbines. China hasn’t purchased the deposits outright, rather it locked up offtake with provincial concession holders instead, using the same strategy it used in Myanmar's Kachin State (which has supplied more than half the value of China's heavy rare earth imports in several recent years).

Scam Sweep Gets 6,200 Arrests

Police held 139 more suspects at the end of August, raiding the Manggrove Hotel and Glory Residents in Xaysettha district and capping a month with almost 900 arrests in at least 12 spots. That brings the year's running total past 6,200, on top of the 589 hauled out of the ST Vegas building and the 261 picked up at Thatluang Lake Special Economic Zone. Chinese nationals made up the largest group in nearly every raid this month, though suspects came from at least seven countries. Investigators say they are still trying to figure out who the masterminds behind the networks are as none have yet been named.

Read more: Laotian Times

Photo by Meklay YOTKHAMSAY on Unsplash

Thongloun Works SCO Sidelines in Bishkek

Thongloun Sisoulith became the SCO's newest Dialogue Partner, then worked the sidelines in a run of bilateral meetings. Belarus's Aleksandr Lukashenko offered machinery, joint ventures and technical training, and got a counter-pitch on gold, with Laos floating the idea of a second processing plant to go with the one already running. Narendra Modi and Kyrgyzstan's Sadyr Japarov also held pull-asides, though neither meeting produced anything substantive. Dialogue Partner status gets Vientiane in the room with China, Russia, India and the other SCO members for trade, transport and “digital connectivity.” Thongloun is next heading to Kazakhstan for another official visit.

Read more: SCO (security), Laotian Times (logistics), Economic Times (India meeting), Trend (Kyrgyzstan meeting), SB (Belarus meeting)

Finance Chiefs Line Up Three VN Megaprojects

Two-way trade with Vietnam was $1.47 billion through the first seven months of this year on exports of ~$1 billion and imports of ~$420 million back. Finance chiefs Santiphab Phomvihane and Ngo Van Tuan agreed at a meeting in Danang to continue work on the Vientiane-Hanoi Expressway, the Vientiane-Vung Ang Railway and a new 500kV cross-border power line, adding them into the 2026-2030 cooperation plan. No construction timeline or financing breakdown was given for any of the three, and the transmission line is still under review. Officials said this year's targets had "basically been met."

Ministries Move to Unify Border Toll Patchwork

The Finance and Public Works ministries are trying to sort out a patchwork of cargo and toll fees between Thanaleng Dry Port, the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge and five Mekong River crossings. Thanaleng handles about 2,000 vehicles a day and added a new Cambodia-to-China produce route that has reduced transit times from almost 20 days to about a week. The ministries have also opened bids for a LAK 3.23 trillion ($148.7 million) project on National Road 9 in Savannakhet, bundling highway rehabilitation with electronic tolling for trucks of 12 tons or more on the corridor connecting Thailand to Vietnam. No winning bidder or rollout date was shared.

Read more: Laotian Times

Water Utility Posts Profit, Taps Still Short

Vientiane Water Enterprise showed a first-half profit of LAK 91.6 billion ($4.2 million), raking in more than half its annual revenue target even though the capital's taps are still running short of what’s demanded. Daily use has reached 504,000 cubic meters versus 400,000 produced. The utility supplies 378 of 481 villages (~four-fifths of the capital). Three new plants are expected to add 80,000 cubic meters of capacity by the end of 2028.

Read more: Laotian Times

Tourism Ministry Audits Zero-Dollar Tour Racket

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is auditing operators in Luang Prabang and Vientiane because of alleged "zero-dollar" packages. These are cut-rate tours that make their money by steering foreigners into commission-heavy shops and restaurants instead of (non-profit producing) temples and parks. Inspectors are checking whether advertised prices match what tourists end up paying.

Myanmar 20260901

August Whitcraft — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 01:42:11 GMT

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Tugboat Lost, Airstrikes to Cover the Retreat

A pusher tugboat with its hull torn open by drone strikes near Katha was what it took to bring the junta's air force down on Shwegu. The 15-vessel flotilla, loaded with rations and reinforcements for an encircled garrison at Bhamo, left Mandalay on August 21 and has been bleeding boats ever since. It lost a base at Zinbon, saw escort vessels routed there, and then abandoned the tugboat near Bokone Village, where KIA and PDF forces took it. The remnants of the convoy are now stuck unloading at Shwegu's river port under suicide drone and rocket fire, as fighter jets and Y-12 transports are working overtime to keep it there.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (casualties), BNI Online (convoy timeline)

Airstrikes Kill 88 Civilians in Two Weeks

The Burma Air Force flew 239 airstrikes in nine regions between August 8 and 23, killing 88 civilians and wounding 157, according to National Unity Government figures. Rebels abandoned Falam, Chin State's only airport town, in April after running out of ammunition under a six-month assault. By late May the military claimed the entire northern half of the state. Mass conscription has refilled army ranks with tens of thousands of troops, although China has brokered ceasefires with some ethnic armed groups and helped choke off weapons routes to others.

Read more: DVB (floods), Myanmar Now (Mindat), Al Jazeera

Rosatom to Break Ground on Nuclear Plant

Rosatom signed the site-survey contract this month, and director general Alexei Likhachev said that "this is essentially the start of construction." The company is expected to break ground not far from Naypyidaw sometime next year. The 110MW plant, modest when compared to installed national capacity of roughly 6,900MW, is expandable to 330MW and will run on two RITM-200N reactors adapted from Russia's nuclear icebreaker fleet. Putin said its a "flagship" project during Min Aung Hlaing's August visit to Moscow. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin laid it on thicker, saying it is "a new symbol of Russia-Myanmar friendship." Nobody has revealed who is going to be paying for the thing. Observers expect the junta, already funding a multi-front war it can barely afford, to take Russian soft loans that would be repayable once the plant starts generating power, or to settle the bill in kind from natural resources. Rosatom is making a similar pitch to Vietnam, Indonesia, and Laos.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (March 2025 agreement), The Irrawaddy (arms trade)

UN Ties $1.4B Rare Earth Boom to Chinese Buyers

Satellite imagery showed 302 new mining sites in Kachin State since the coup, almost two and a half times the previous total, feeding a trade to the Chinese market that peaked at $1.4 billion in 2023, the UN Human Rights Office said in a report. The report also put confirmed civilian deaths at 8,075 since the coup, a lower count than ACLED's estimated 100,000-plus total deaths (that one includes combatants). Internal displacement is 3.6 million people, with 12.4 million people facing acute hunger. Rights chief Volker Turk called on "all states, companies and investors to undertake serious soul-searching" about their dealings with the country.

Read more: Al Jazeera (annual death toll), Myanmar Now (100,000 death toll)

Scam Compounds Move Into Yangon Hotels

Chinese-linked syndicates once confined to barbed-wire compounds in Shan and Karen states are now running entire floors of fraud out of leased hotels and "IT training centers" in Yangon, guarded by digital locks and elevators instead of jungle fences. The venues often carry the names of legitimate hospitality chains, with windowless upper floors converted into secure facilities. The Tatmadaw and allied militias have been reported to be active partners as illicit cash flows into local real estate and business licenses.

Junta Navy Sails to Malaysia to Collect 1,476

Two navy warships and a hospital ship will pick up 1,476 nationals from Malaysia on September 29. It’s the opening batch of a 5,000-person voluntary return deal that Anwar Ibrahim announced in July. Kuala Lumpur has been holding more than 10,000 Myanmar nationals in immigration detention and wants their identities and refugee claims verified by year-end. Malaysia is host to 215,600 UNHCR-registered refugees, almost all from Myanmar, including more than 126,000 Rohingya. No independent monitoring of the September 29 group is expected, and Malaysia's main Rohingya rights group has asked that government to put the plan on pause because returnees' lives would be at risk.

Read more: AP News (registration document rollout), Myanmar Now (Refugee Convention status)

Nine Years on, Rohingya Camps Run Low on Food

Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees rallied in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar camps, as they pass the nine year mark since Myanmar's military drove them out. They are protesting conditions that have reportedly gotten worse. More than 1.2 million refugees are packed into about 30 camps, where almost everyone still lives in bamboo-and-tarpaulin lean-tos. More than half the shelters need repairs. Funding has collapsed.

Read more: Myanmar Now (repatriation), ReliefWeb (children), ReliefWeb (aid), ReliefWeb (Canada funding)

Naypyidaw Presses Bangkok Again on Rebel Arms

General Ye Win Oo met Thai National Security Council chief Chatchai Bangchuad in Naypyidaw in an attempt to cut cross-border arms shipments to resistance forces. The meeting is the latest of at least three similar approaches since early August when Min Aung Hlaing raised it with Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul. Ye Win Oo then held his own Bangkok meeting with counterpart General Ukris Boontanondha before the two militaries' annual summit. The regime readout also mentioned cooperation on cyber-scam and gambling operations, drug smuggling, and restricted chemicals, but the arms pipeline into Karen, Karenni, and Tanintharyi is the one Naypyidaw keeps beating the drum on.

Fuel Caps, Rice Prices, and Floodwaters All Rise

The Petroleum Products Regulatory Department raised its weekly cap on 92 RON gasoline to 3,710 kyats a liter, about $1.40 at the parallel rate, up from 3,575 the week before, and diesel climbed to 4,240 kyats from 4,070. Rice prices were up almost 4 percent month-on-month in July and about 10 percent over a year earlier. Fertilizer prices are also still well above last year but crop prices have barely moved. In the south, the Taninthayi River rose to a level of 7.5 meters, past its 7.3-meter danger mark, submerging a stretch of the Union Highway by more than three feet and sending 700 people into evacuation shelters.

Read more: The Star (floods), Cambodianess (fuel caps), ReliefWeb (food prices)

MEHL Detains Three Over Import Deals

Three senior officials at Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, the military's flagship conglomerate, have been detained because of improper import dealings in a rare internal corruption case. The arrests have opened up a look into wider irregularities in how MEHL brings goods into the country. The conglomerate's import operations have never been subject to independent audit. No names have been released, and no charges have been so far been made public.

Bo Kyi Wins Magsaysay Award

Bo Kyi, jailed for seven years after Myanmar's 1988 uprising, won the 2026 Ramon Magsaysay Award for more than 26 years of documenting political detentions through the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. AAPP reports more than 22,000 political prisoners still behind bars since the coup. Bo Kyi dedicated the award to them, as well as making a call for Aung San Suu Kyi's unconditional release.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (founding history), DVB (fifth Myanmar laureate)

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Cambodia 20260831

August Whitcraft — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 03:59:40 GMT

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Gov’t Protests Thai Trench-Digging at Border

The Foreign Ministry filed a protest after Thai heavy machinery was sent to dig trenches in the Chouk Krous area. The work is part of what Phnom Penh says is a series of border violations. The complaint comes after Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul visited the Chong An Ma area (Cambodians call it An Seh), in Preah Vihear province, territory Phnom Penh says Thai troops have occupied since 2025. Hun Manet said the situation remains "fragile," as Joint Boundary Commission survey work promised under December's ceasefire remains stalled while barbed wire, shipping containers and Thai land allocations for civilians are still in the disputed territory.

Read more: Cambodianess (boundary maps), Khmer Times (machinery protest), Cambodianess (Anutin visit), CamboJA News (Hun Sen)

Gov’t: Scam Compounds Shut, Trackers: No

Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith told nearly 50 foreign diplomats that Cambodia's 13-month enforcement campaign had cleared every large-scale scam compound in the country. The government says it has raided 624 of 793 identified sites, detained nearly 30,000 suspects (including 15 senior government and law-enforcement officials), and deported 58,266 foreign nationals. Independent anti-trafficking consultant Mark Taylor said the government's confidence was "severely misplaced." Blue Dragon Children's Foundation founder Michael Brosowski was gentler, saying calls from trafficked people have fallen sharply, though they haven’t stopped. The government's statement did admit that criminal networks have moved into guesthouses, condominiums, rental houses, vehicles and coffee shops, and that 855 more suspects remain at large.

Read more: Straits Times (enforcement claims), Phnom Penh Post (cybersecurity law), Cambodianess (rescues), Tdtnews (earlier crackdown)

MSC Sees Growth Sinking to 2.7% in 2026

Mekong Strategic Capital expects 2026 growth to come in at 2.7%, the weakest print outside the pandemic in 17 years and well below the government's 4.1% expectation. The IMF, World Bank, ADB and AMRO are all higher, at about 3% to 4.2%. The gap comes almost entirely from services, which MSC thinks will shrink as accommodation and food take the pain from a previously expected quarter-plus drop in international arrival numbers. Finance and real estate are also softening with rising loan losses and property oversupply. Industry tells a different story, finding growth of a little more than 7%, almost up to Vietnam’s level, as garments and other manufacturing keep moving. MSC expects growth to recover to 6% in 2027 if (big IF) tourism, finance and real estate come back.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Casino Shutdowns Cut Gaming Revenue by a Third

Gaming duties collected by the Finance Ministry were down to $29 million in the first half of 2026, reduced from $39 million a year earlier, after nearly 100 casino licenses were cancelled after last year's sweep against scam-connected operators. NagaWorld, which still has the Phnom Penh monopoly, saw its duty payments drop 18%. The ministry blamed some of the damage on the closed Thai border, which has also hurt tourism, agricultural exports and remittances.

Read more: CamboJA News

Zero Tax on Top of 10% US Rate Sought

Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol is pushing Washington for Most-Favored-Nation status with zero added duty, trying to build on the momentum of a successful 10% Section 301 rate (2.5% less than what Vietnam and Thailand pay). The stakes are more than $7 billion in exports sent to the US (still Cambodia’s biggest market) in the first half of 2026. A separate USTR investigation into structural excess manufacturing capacity, focused on 16 economies including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, is expected to be finished soon and could result in further duties. US Representatives Jimmy Panetta, Jim Baird, Julie Johnson and Kristen McDonald Rivet recently met with Hun Manet at the Peace Palace, where the prime minister talked textiles, ag/ agro-processing.

Read more: Khmer Times (tariff push), Khmer Times (US delegation)

Photo by James Wheeler on Unsplash

Ex-FM Chief Had 375 Accounts at 7 Banks

The Anti-Corruption Unit says Tho Samnang, the former director-general reassigned to an adviser post after an April royal decree, had 375 bank accounts in seven banks. That’s connected to the nearly $3 million traced to him and two colleagues from the sale of more than 12,000 official C and CEX visa forms to online scam operators. The ACU wants the courts to freeze/ seize the assets for the state and says it is still looking for any more money that may still be hidden.

Microfinance Borrowers Refuse IFC Offer

Sixteen indigenous microfinance borrowers, including the widow of a complainant who died during the process, rejected the IFC's informal settlement offer, saying they feared for their safety and didn’t trust the mechanism. The refusal comes after the World Bank board rejected its watchdog's 188-page report, which found that the IFC broke its own rules and caused system-wide harm in the microfinance sector, including lost livelihoods, food insecurity, family breakups and intimidation. Yikes. Licadho and Equitable Cambodia, which filed the original complaint in 2022 on behalf of the borrowers, have stepped back, giving the IFC contact details for two other complainants. The World Bank says the IFC is considering its options for what to do next even as it hopes the sixteen will reconsider.

Read more: CamboJA News

Thai Boycott Boosts Local SME Demand

Demand for locally made goods has gone up by about a third in the past year as shoppers turn away from Thai brands, according to the Federation of Associations for Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia. SMEs, formal and informal combined, generated almost three-fifths of GDP in 2025, but the Ministry of Industry's most recent numbers put almost all small businesses outside the formal system. A digital registration platform launched in late 2024 was intended to close that gap, but hasn’t yet been able to do so. The PM has told officials to expand the CamDX data-sharing platform to try and reduce the paperwork and bring more businesses into the fold.

Read more: CamboJA News

PM Rules Out Vietnam-Style Ministry Mergers

Hun Manet told the country's civil servants that the nation’s ministries are staying put. He put aside comparisons to Vietnam's ministerial mergers and provincial consolidations. He said that his approach would be to work towards "strengthening, not expanding." He conceded that consolidation might be able to cut overlap and reduce administrative costs, but argued that merging agencies risks creating institutions that are hard to manage without trimming payrolls or spending. He apparently hoped nobody else would notice the irony of his position.

Read more: CamboJA News

NGOs Get 80% of Budget from Foreign Donors

More than nine in ten social-delivery groups rely on foreign donors who, on average, cover about four-fifths of their budgets. That’s double the Asian norm, according to the Center for Asian Philanthropy and Society's 2026 Doing Good Index. Most surveyed groups said domestic funding was insufficient as US aid cuts and a global pullback squeeze the sector.

Read more: CamboJA News

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Thailand 20260828

August Whitcraft — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 04:07:42 GMT

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Attacks in Deep South, Malaysia Tightens Border

Fifty-one coordinated arson and incendiary attacks tore through Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani between 8pm and midnight on August 22, wounding three civilians, torching a subdistrict office and a 7-Eleven, and damaging rail tracks badly enough to suspend service on part of the Narathiwat line. No group took responsibility, but the attacks match a pattern that has been running through the Deep South for years.

Read more: Al Jazeera (victims and curfew), BBC (attack scale), Yahoo News Malaysia (new facilitators), Malay Mail (talks timeline)

Amnesty Law Skips Royal Defamation

The Promotion of a Peaceful Society Act took effect on August 18. The deal covered about 6,000 people prosecuted for political offenses from sedition to terrorism that were committed between 2005 and September 2025. Royal defamation is not on the list, so there’s still a real line in the sand. On the 26th, the Supreme Court upheld a nearly three-year sentence against Prasong Khotsongkhram, for Facebook posts from 2021, pushing the number of people currently being held because of protests and political expression to 53. In Phatthalung, a court convicted Thiramet, a 23-year-old with an intellectual disability, because of a TikTok video of himself sitting on a portrait of the king. He was given a suspended 18-month term after a psychiatrist said he was fit to stand trial.

Read more: Prachatai English (Prasong sentence), Prachatai English (Thiramet case), Prachatai English (amnesty scope)

Gov’t Systems Get “Logged Into,” Not Hacked

Criminals bought 60 million leaked credentials from dark web markets and then just logged into government systems by way of standard APIs. Apparently, data from more than 20 state agencies was leaked this way, including personal details of the prime minister and cabinet ministers. As the horse disappears from the barn, the Digital Economy and Society Ministry wants cabinet to approve mandatory multi-factor authentication in government systems, mass password resets, and a review of about 30,000 information systems. A report from Verizon (their 2026 Data Breach Investigations) places credential abuse behind a quarter of Asia-Pacific breaches. That’s second to software vulnerability exploits at 42 percent.

Qatari Gas Bets Give Way to SMRs

Energy Minister Akanat Promphan is doubling the clean-power target to 60 percent of generation by 2050, in a 25-year plan expected by October, in addition to putting nuclear on the table. All four draft scenarios for the new Power Development Plan include small modular reactors, with combined capacity of up to 9,000 MW by 2050. The neatest scenario would push total clean energy to almost nine-tenths of generation and fossil fuels, natch, with the remaining tenth. The pivot has become more urgent since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent seaborne LNG prices through the roof, even though Qatar supplies only about 6 percent of Thailand’s gas imports (that’s two to three shipments a month). Natural gas still provides more than 60 percent of the country's electricity, compared to 15 percent for renewables.

Read more: Energy Connects (LNG exposure), OilPrice (nuclear plans), Reccessary (storage)

Electronics Banks Billions on Circuit Boards, Chips

Electronics manufacturers have parked $30.5 billion in Thai investments since 2023, with $10.1 billion of that going into ~224 projects related to printed circuit boards and components. The figure comes from BOI numbers that were shared at the THECA 2026 summit at BITEC, where more than 300 companies and 7,000 delegates from 40 countries came together to talk AI infrastructure, photonics, and advanced chip packaging. BOI chief Narit Therdsteerasukdi says the money is nothing like the “assembly-line” capital of three decades ago, saying that this money supporting frontier tech driven by proprietary knowledge and specialized labor. Bangkok has also been picked to host the 17th Electronic Circuits World Convention in August of next year. That’s a triennial event that rotates between the world's top electronics manufacturing economies.

Read more: Vietnam Investment Review (skills shift), Economic Times (local suppliers)

Photo by Hongbin on Unsplash

BoT Sits Tight as Factories and Exports Sprint

The BoT unanimously (for the second meeting in a row) kept its benchmark rate at 1.00 percent. DBS is betting the rate won’t move through the rest of 2026. The hold came as July data beat the desk with industrial output edging up after a June fall, seeing its first gain in four months. The showing was helped by car production returning to growth. Exports were up 21.6 percent, topping forecasts (17.8 percent) and showing the fastest pace in three months. The Commerce Ministry is sticking with its +8% full-year export target, which now looks more likely than it did a month ago.

Read more: FX Street (DBS forecast), Thai Enquirer (growth outlook), TradingView (factory output), TradingView (exports), TradingView (inflation)

Rocket-Hit Gas Station Gets No State Payout

A BM-21 rocket fired from Cambodia tore through Kamonrat Phonsetlert's gas station in Kantharalak district, and the Finance Ministry's compensation rules aren’t going to pay out because they cover only the dead and injured, not property. Her private insurance has declined to pay too, because war damage from a foreign strike is outside standard coverage. To date she’s received 1 million baht in humanitarian aid, and a House budget committee chaired by People's Party MP Rukchanok Srinok is now trying to get the eligibility criteria redrafted.

Read more: Khaosod English

Carrier To “Eastern Port” After 250 Days at Sea

The carrier is expected to pull into an “eastern port,” in its first stop since leaving San Diego last November to back US operations against Iran. The Thai navy, which will not name the three ships or the arrival date "for security reasons," says it is routine rest and resupply, and no drills will be connected to the visit. Democratic lawmakers say the run is a modern-day record for consecutive days at sea. Reports from crew families, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth disputes, describe supply and water shortages, plumbing failures, and multiple overboard attempts among the about 5,000 crew. Pattaya beware.

Read more: The Guardian (crew accounts), AZ News (Thai port call), Navy Times (Pentagon response)

Anutin Dismisses Cambodian Call for His Arrest

A Phnom Penh Post commentary called on Cambodian authorities to file charges and seek an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul because of his August 23 visit to Chong An Ma in Ubon Ratchathani. When told of the demand, Anutin sounded more amused than rattled. "Really? What should I say? I followed the law. I have the Joint Statement, signed by the leaders of both countries." Anutin said talks depend on Cambodia also holding its current position under the bilateral agreement. "If they follow the Joint Statement too, it will lead to discussions. But if they don't, I don't know how we can hold discussions."

Read more: Khaosod English

Zoo Brawl Costs Israeli Tourist a Visa

The government canceled the visa of an Israeli man that allegedly engaged in a confrontation at Samui Exotic Park, where French owner Kevin Dimino (proudly?) flies a Palestinian flag and prohibits Israeli visitors from entry. Videos of the dispute appear to show Dimino head-butting the Israeli tourist. Police are investigating an allegation that an Israeli offered 500,000 baht for information that could lead to an attack on Dimino, who says his mother's home in France was set on fire because of the dispute. Tourism Minister Surasak Phancharoenworakul said the visa cancellation was meant to stop things escalating further and that each case would be judged on its own (de?)merits.

Vietnam 20260827

August Whitcraft — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 02:54:59 GMT

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BNP Paribas, Kookmin Eye Techcombank Pie

BNP Paribas and KB Kookmin Bank are reportedly talking (separately) about buying a slice ofTechcombank in a deal that could bring in $2 billion and end the lender's long hunt for a foreign strategic partner. Both of them deny anything is afoot, but word is that Techcombank wants to fetch two times book value, according to people familiar with the talks. That price would be about a 55% premium to its last close before the news broke. Shares rose as much as 7% Wednesday. The 30% foreign ownership cap for banks means a 15% stake would use half the room left for outside investors, a scarce prize in a market where global lenders have circled local banks for years without being able to land a deal of this size. Techcombank is Vietnam’s third-largest privately owned bank by assets.

VN Passes China as US’s Biggest Trade Headache

The surplus with the US reached $114 billion in the first half of 2026, edging past China's and trailing only Mexico despite an economy a quarter Mexico's size. Chinese goods are getting an effective US tariff of 23.2%, Vietnamese goods 6.5%, and importers from Apple to Lululemon have voted with their supply chains, by pushing US imports up 40% year-on-year to $123 billion. Customs data through mid-August show exports of computers and electronics rebounding almost 12% in the first half of the month to $7.32 billion, helping narrow the trade gap. Standard Chartered is betting on the momentum, expecting to see 9.5% GDP growth this year and 11% next, after an 8.4% second-quarter print beat their 7% forecast. Washington still hasn’t ruled on how much product is really Chinese made with a Vietnamese label, but that’s a story we’ll be watching.

Read more: VnEconomy (exports), VnExpress (GDP).

Hanoi Cuts Taxes 30% for Small Business

The National Assembly passed a deal that will cut personal and corporate income tax by 30% for 2026 and 2027 for individuals and businesses earning up to VND10 billion ($380,000) yearly. That metric covers almost every household business and more than four-fifths of registered enterprises. The relief has already been put in place - it came into effect the same day it passed with no phase-in, pilot provinces, or anything else to put a toe in the water. Full speed ahead. Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan thinks the cost to the state budget will be about VND3.19 trillion ($112 million) in 2026 and VND3.51 trillion ($134 million) in 2027.

Read more: VnEconomy (minister), VnEconomy (proposal)

Reimagined Oil Rules for Aging Fields

Fields brought online between 1986 and 2015 are now 15 to 30 years into their productive lives and declining fast. The amended Petroleum Law is trying to address that problem with incentives for marginal, clustered, and nearly exhausted blocks. The legislative rewrite will let contractors build offshore wind and solar inside existing petroleum contract areas and for the first time will give them the right to own, trade, and sell carbon credits from carbon capture and storage, with proceeds counted against recoverable costs. Approval procedures are also being shortened, field development plans will be able to replace old pre-feasibility/ feasibility studies, and Petrovietnam is being given more decision-making power. The law will come into force on March 1.

Read more: VnEconomy (law details), The Investor (spending forecast), VnEconomy (timeline)

Shrimp Exports Lose on Tariffs to Ecuador, India

Washington's new Section 301 rates, in force since July 24, split the seafood trade into two groups. Ecuador, India, and Indonesia pay 10%. Vietnam pays 12.5%. Once anti-dumping and countervailing duties are added on top and the total tax bill for major shrimp exporters is going to be about 19.6%. That’s going to be healthily more than what rivals in Ecuador, Indonesia, and Thailand will be lumbered with. VASEP's Le Hang says the spread will be enough to move order books for standard frozen shrimp, where buyers really switch suppliers on cost alone.

Read more: VnEconomy

Photo by Denis Sobnakov on Unsplash

Data Center Pipeline Passes $5B

Since February, four consortiums have announced more than $5 billion in data center projects. The biggest are G42's $2 billion tie-up with FPT, VinaCapital, and Viet Thai at Saigon Hi-Tech Park and a $2.1 billion AI facility from Accelerated Infrastructure Capital and Kinh Bac City Development. That one is expected to be fully funded by the end of Q1 2027. Starmason added $480 million for a 60MW hyperscale complex in April, and Singapore's Evolution, Hathor, and Frontier committed $509 million for a 52MW site chasing Uptime Tier IV certification. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City together host about 73MW of operational capacity already today, but power is the number one bottleneck, as a 100MW project in either cluster currently needs to wait two to three years for new supply.

Read more: VnExpress

HCMC Plans Driverless Metro to Long Thanh Airport

Ho Chi Minh City is planning to break ground in early September for a ~46 km long metro line from Thu Thiem to the Cam Duong depot in Dong Nai. The trains are designed to run up to 120 kph and will have GoA4 automation, meaning no driver and no attendant is needed. Phase one builds 14 of the line's 18 stations at a preliminary cost of VND134.169 trillion ($5.3 billion), excluding land clearance. The city is using a build-transfer contract that will be repaid with land and state budget money once construction finishes in 2030. The route connects with six other rail lines, including the planned North-South high-speed railway, and puts its final station inside Long Thanh airport, which should finally open to commercial flights at the beginning of December.

Read more: VnExpress

Hanoi Tells Chinese Investors to Bring the R&D

PM Le Minh Hung met with Chinese investors in Hanoi and asked them for less low-margin assembly and more R&D/ technology transfer. The meeting produced 44 proposals for ministries to chew through. Texhong, which has already brought more than $1.8 billion of muscle into projects in Dong Nai and Quang Ninh (and now makes about a quarter of the country's yarn output), told Deputy PM Pham Gia Tuc it is shifting to green production and wants Hanoi to promise access to clean energy. TCL, in Vietnam since 1999 with four plants, wants to grow into high-tech and audiovisual electronics. Tuc promised stable power and better logistics, which is exactly what investors want to hear from Hanoi.

Read more: VnEconomy (PM), VnEconomy (Texhong), The Investor (TCL), Tuoi Tre (trade)

Hanoi Arms Itself to Cut Off Foreign Platforms

Decree 327/2026/ND-CP gives authorities the legal switch to block foreign telecom, internet, and cloud services that fail to set up a local office, refuse to store user data domestically, or ignore takedown orders. No grace period was written into the rule. It also allows for “cybersecurity forces” to request temporary suspension of payment accounts and digital wallets connected to fraud, fake/ rented identities, or unauthorized transactions in foreign currencies or digital assets. Every internet provider and system operator will have just 24 hours to hand over any requested data, or three hours if authorities say its an emergency.

Read more: VnEconomy

Micro-Firms Fold Fastest as Real Estate Sours

Nearly a quarter of micro-enterprises shut down in 2025. That’s more than double the closure rate for small and medium companies and almost five times the rate for large companies. Real estate fared the worst at 24% followed closely by hotels and restaurants at 23.5%. New registrations and reactivations also dropped in every size category, so the churn wasn’t offset by new market entrants. To be fair, some companies were able to grow, however. Nearly 43,000 businesses scaled into a bigger size class by 2026, and the micro-to-SME transition rate has risen to about 9% from 7.5%. Graduation into the large-enterprise bracket stayed stuck below 1%, where it’s been sitting for years.

Read more: VnEconomy

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Laos 20260826

August Whitcraft — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:34:23 GMT

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EDL-Gen Sells First Corporate Dollar Bond

EDL-Generation, the hydropower and solar arm of state utility EDL, priced $300 million in notes due 2031 with an 11.125 percent coupon. It’s the first international bond sold by a Lao corporate issuer. JP Morgan ran the sale under (US SEC) Rule 144A and Regulation S, and the notes are listed on the Singapore Exchange, giving institutional buyers in the US and elsewhere a way in without having to tiptoe through Vientiane's thin domestic market. The coupon is well above what investment-grade Southeast Asian utilities usually pay, a reminder that investors are still pricing in dollar shortages and the debt hangover from Chinese lending. Sidley Austin advised JP Morgan; Linklaters advised the issuer.

Vientiane Rewrites Electricity Law

A 176-article rewrite of the 2017 Electricity Law covers a whole slate of issues including rooftop solar buybacks, direct power sales between producers and businesses, and what happens when hydropower concessions expire and then revert to the state. Most of the text is new or rewritten, which gives the output more weight than most legal tune-ups. Officials are trying to create an Electricity Regulatory Authority, a Lao Grid Code, Renewable Energy Certificates, and Build-Lease-Transfer and Lease-Operate-Transfer deal structures so that power producers can sell outside EDL and the system can lean a little less heavily on hydropower. A seven-day review wrapped up August 23, but the committee is still working through sections that officials disagreed on.

Read more: Laotian Times

Central Bank Cuts Rate to 7%

The Bank of Laos trimmed its seven-day base rate from 8 percent to 7 percent on August 20, its fourth cut in a year, after inflation was reported to have dropped from a little above 10 percent in April to the mid-7s in June. It ticked back up again in July on higher electricity costs, but managed to stay under the government's 8 percent target. The central bank has also decided to extend foreign exchange trading by an hour (now to 4 PM). Laos is still a heavy user of multiple currencies as it scrambles for foreign exchange to service debt.

Read more: Laotian Times

Growth Slows to 4.6% as LDC Exit Grows Near

GDP grew 4.6 percent in the second quarter, down from 5.5 percent in the first, leaving the economy at 5 percent for the first half compared to a 6 percent (full year) target that the government still says it can get to. Tourism did much of the heavy lifting on nearly 2.6 million arrivals in six months. Services handily outran industry and agriculture. Revenue collection managed to beat expectations at LAK 44,956 billion (~$2 billion). Vietnam managed 8.2 percent over the same stretch, and Thailand wrangled 2.4 percent. Vientiane wants to hold a 6 percent pace through 2030. It is expected to graduate from UN Least Developed Country status at the end of 2026.

Read more: Laotian Times

US Court Lifts Visa Pause, Lao Citizens Still Locked Out

A US federal judge struck down the State Department's 75-country immigrant visa pause on August 21, as it said the blanket policy is/was "patently unlawful" since it barred consular officers from reviewing applicants one by one. Nationals of most listed countries are now able get case-by-case reviews, but Lao citizens still can’t because of a separate Presidential Proclamation from June 2025 that still suspends entry and immigrant visa issuance for Laos. The State Department has not said how embassies should handle countries caught between the two policies.

Read more: Laotian Times

Photo by Ioana F on Unsplash

Korean Chains Pile Into Vientiane's Kok Kok Mall

EDIYA COFFEE, Paris Baguette and Dookki have all opened their first stores at Vientiane's Kok Kok Mega Mall, all of them under a master franchise deal with KOLAO Group, the Korean-founded conglomerate that got its start assembling cars. E-MART24 is using the same partner to roll out a convenience store chain. KOLAO already runs nationwide distribution, real estate and logistics operations, which lets the new entrants skip the cost of building local networks from zero. Mom's Touch, Lotteria, No Brand and Shinsegae Factory Store are all already there as well.

Health Ministry Gives Clinics Until November

The Health Ministry has given unlicensed clinics until November 30 to get permits, with dental offices, cosmetic surgery shops, injection providers, acupuncture clinics and stem cell centers all in the crosshairs. The order reminds everyone about the Law on Medical Treatment but doesn’t go so far as to enumerate fines, closures or inspection rules for clinics that miss the deadline. So the ministry looks hard on paper, but, at least for now, seems much quieter about enforcement.

Read more: Laotian Times

JP Arrivals Up 36% After Princess Aiko's Visit

Japanese arrivals were 23,133 in the first half of 2026, up 36 percent year-on-year. Tourism officials credit Princess Aiko's five-day visit to Vientiane and Luang Prabang, her first official overseas trip, which coincided with 70 years of diplomatic ties. Expo and festival appearances in Japan are adding to the drive, along with a renewed deal with a Japanese promotion firm that will pitch schools, universities, media and travel agencies. The rebound brought nearly 2.6 million international visitors in the first half, and the government continues to hope for five to six million by year-end.

Read more: Laotian Times

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Myanmar 20260825

August Whitcraft — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:27:13 GMT

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Air Strike at Sagaing Monastery

A fighter jet dropped two bombs on Swel Le Oh village in Sagaing's Myaung township Friday, hitting a monastery hall where more than 100 people, many of them elderly, had gathered for a three-month meditation retreat during Buddhist Lent. Fourteen died and 20 were wounded; a rescuer said the aircraft circled back for a second pass while they worked. "It wasn't a mistaken target, they intentionally attacked a monastery," said Nway Oo Myaung, a pro-democracy rebel who was there.

Read more: AP News (villagers flee), SCMP (death toll), BBC (victims), DW (military claim), Daily Sabah (analysts)

Starlink Goes Dark

Starlink access cut out in Myanmar, knocking an estimated 13 million users (almost a quarter of the population) offline. Many had come to depend on SpaceX's dishes after years of shutdowns on the ground network. Almost two-fifths of the country's townships already have intermittent or total blackouts every month, and for resistance-held areas with no fiber and no cell towers, Starlink was frequently the only connection to the outside world. SpaceX has yet to explain the outage or give a timeline for the restoration of service.

Families Hide Sons as Draft Quotas Double

Ward administrators across Mandalay have been told to double conscription quotas to 4-10 men, aged 18 to 35 per intake, starting in September, and residents say families are hiding sons or leaving the city. The regime has run 27 recruitment batches since forced conscription began in April 2024, bringing in an estimated 135,000 men. Deputy Home Affairs Minister Min Thu said authorities are coming up with lists of draft evaders and giving them to security forces for arrest. The regime has never published quota numbers at any level, be that national, city, township, or ward.

Junta Attacks Crossing It's Selling to Moscow

Troops in southern Tanintharyi backed by drone strikes and daily artillery have been pushing through Thayetchaung, Launglon, and Myitta townships since mid-August, trying to wrest the Hteekhee trade corridor from KNU Brigade 4. This is also the crossing that the junta has been showing off to Russian investors. Infantry Battalion 104 has been shelling areas along the Launglon-Maungmagan Road, and more than 10 area villages have emptied out, as local defense forces expect the offensive to widen over the coming days.

Junta Burns a Path to Dawei Port

About 700 troops have moved through Tanintharyi Region since July, burning homes and clearing land around the Dawei Special Economic Zone, the deep-sea port that was once celebrated (and pitched) as a bypass to the Strait of Malacca. Russian-made Su-30SME jets are flying air support, giving the army an edge over scattered Tanintharyi People's Defence Force units trying to defend the area. Local group MAGGA Initiative says the military captured and killed three humanitarian workers in Yebyu Township after they ran into an army convoy. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been talking up the prospect of jobs for small and medium businesses inside the zone; Naypyidaw continues to say the corridor can cut cargo transit times by four to six days (as compared to via the strait), but how much of the site is currently secured is unclear, and construction has mostly been stalled since 2013.

Read more: Militarnyi (offensive), Defense Post

Rubio Designates Min Zin "Wrongfully Detained"

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Chiang Mai-based scholar Min Zin "wrongfully detained," a month ahead of Xi Jinping's Washington visit. Min Zin, a naturalized US citizen and founder of the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar, was taken into custody in Yunnan while attending an academic conference at the Chinese government's invitation. Beijing says he was held on suspicion of espionage endangering national security. ISP-M's work covers China's dealings in the borderlands, where Beijing has been accused of backing both the junta and anti-junta factions.

Read more: DVB (family reaction), Myanmar Now (Xi visit timing)

Ye Win Oo Picks Bangkok for First Foreign Trip

Ye Win Oo, given the military's top job when Min Aung Hlaing moved into the presidency in April, chose Bangkok for his first foreign outing, meeting Thai army chief Ukris Boontanondha to talk about the shared border, drug trafficking, and cyberscam networks. The agenda also covered counterterrorism, training, and humanitarian and disaster relief. It comes after Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's welcome of Min Aung Hlaing earlier this month, and the Thai foreign minister is framing the outreach as "not about legitimacy; it's about reality." UN experts have dismissed this year's election as a "sham," staged as the junta tries to end five years of isolation since the 2021 coup.

Naypyidaw Verifies 308k Rohingya, Blocks Return

Nine years after the 2017 crackdown, Naypyidaw says it has verified 308,000 of the 820,000 names Bangladesh has put forward for repatriation, but has hastened to add that it will not be taking anyone back until Rakhine State is safe. The military no longer controls most of the region, as much of it held by the Arakan Army.

Read more: ReliefWeb, DVB (sea escapes), DW (EU aid), ReliefWeb (sea deaths)

Minsk Trip Yields Nine Deals and Army Boots

Nine agreements signed in Minsk run the gamut of defense, security, trade, and public health, and even include a footwear factory (location undisclosed) that’s to be built by insolvent Belarusian shoemaker Belvest, whose $85 million debt has it hunting new markets. Perhaps unrelatedly, Quartermaster-General Zaw Myo Tin is looking for new boots for the armed forces. Min Aung Hlaing also set by-elections for the 102 townships that were skipped in the 2025-2026 phased vote for "early 2027," and invited Belarusian observers to monitor them.

Read more: DVB (visa exemption), DVB (footwear factory), By (Lukashenko)

Cholera Follows the Floodwaters into Yangon

Cholera has killed three people, one in Yangon and two in Sittwe, and hospitalized about 500 with what is suspected to be cholera in the nation’s commercial capital. Authorities haven’t directly connected the outbreak to the monsoon, but flooding has displaced thousands of households in Ayeyarwady after the Ngawun River embankment breached at Laymyethna, and another 538 households in Kayin State.

Read more: The Malaysian Reserve (response teams), ReliefWeb (flooding), ReliefWeb (aid access)

Kachin Villagers Torch KIA Checkpoint

Residents in Kachin State set a KIA checkpoint ablaze after troops there shot and injured a civilian driver, the latest trouble following months of rising anger about the fees that the locals are charged by those running the post. The Kachin Independence Army has spent years fighting the junta; but this time the target of public fury was one of its own toll gates.

Cambodia 20260824

August Whitcraft — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 01:18:54 GMT

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Sanctioned Tycoon Tops the Senate's Donor Wall

King Norodom Sihamoni cut the ribbon on the Senate's new "Solidarity Palace" on August 21, his first public appearance outside the Royal Palace since prostate cancer surgery in Beijing. Officials celebrated the four-story Khmer-style building as a symbol of national unity, then perhaps engineered a faux pas. At the top of the 11-name plaque is Ly Yong Phat, the tycoon the US Treasury sanctioned in 2024 because of alleged human rights abuses tied to workers trafficked into scam compounds run by his company. The plaque also lists Hun To, Prime Minister Hun Manet's cousin, who held an almost one-third stake in Huione Pay, the payments platform Washington claimed was laundering money for cyber-scam networks before Cambodia's central bank revoked its license. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who chaired the construction committee, said the building was "designed, built and funded by Cambodians." The project cost around $10 million, according to Khmer Times. Ly attended the ceremony and fervently denies any link to cybercrime or money laundering.

Read more: Khaosod English (Huione Pay), Khmer Times ($10 million cost), Malay Mail (ceremony), Khmer Times (construction)

UNDP Says Border War Displaced 644,589

The UN Development Program's socioeconomic assessment confirms that December's fighting pushed 644,589 people from their homes at its peak. Some 347,346 crowded into more than 200 temporary sites while another 297,243 sheltered with host families, 883 schools shut, and more than 50 health facilities suspended service along the border. The economic shock was a bigger deal than the displacement, as roughly 900,000 migrant workers returned from Thailand by late September and that slashed remittance flows into rural households that had previously been dependent on them.

Read more: The Star (Chinese denial), UNDP (assessment), Khmer Times (border works)

FM Cuts 2026 Growth Forecast to 4.1%

The Ministry of Economy and Finance cut its 2026 growth forecast to 4.1% (that’s down from 5% in January and 4.2% in May). The ministry blamed Middle East-driven fuel prices, the border spat with Thailand, and lingering scam-center fallout, which together are dragging down tourism and agriculture in addition to slowing the garment sector. Wholesale-retail, finance, and construction-real estate are tracking as expected, and non-garment manufacturing exports are running ahead of forecast, which could lift overall performance through year-end.

Read more: The Star

Moody's Puts Bad-Loan Ratio at 9.6%

The non-performing loan ratio was 9.6% in June, Moody's told the 5th Cambodia Banking Conference in Phnom Penh, up from 8.3% at the end of 2025 and quadruple the 2.4% seen in 2021. The ~10% figure puts Cambodia well above regional peers, as Thailand is at 3.7%, Vietnam at 1.9%, and Malaysia at 1.2%. Real estate makes up about 22% of lending at deposit-taking institutions, the highest concentration in the agency's regional comparison, and restructured loans add another 9% of total credit that isn’t in the headline NPL figure. Private-sector debt is near 120% of GDP. Two days after Moody’s report, the Association of Banks in Cambodia announced three "strategic priorities" built around resilience, financial integrity and what it calls productive finance. No numbers, targets or deadlines were shared with any of them. ABC Chairman Rath Sophoan said the sector remains "resilient" despite "property-market adjustment, asset-quality pressures and complex cyber risks."

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (Moody's warning), Khmer Times (bank response)

NagaWorld VIP Revenue Halves

Casino gaming tax collections fell almost 26% year-on-year to $28 million in the first half, down from roughly $38 million in the year earlier, and NagaWorld's Referral VIP revenue was cut in more-than-half to $9.17 million as high-roller traffic dried up. Mass market tables were able to hold up, with their share of the take up almost a quarter to $91.3 million, and Premium VIP slipped about 16% to $35.9 million. The Ministry of Economy and Finance is still expecting full-year collections to beat the target by almost 18%, so nobody at the Treasury is sweating just yet.

Sinaloa's Crypto Laundromat Found in Kandal

Cambodian anti-drug police and the DEA raided four sites in Phnom Penh and Kandal province, taking about $7 million in cryptocurrency allegedly laundered for Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, in addition to more than 200 kilograms of drugs and more than a metric ton of precursor chemicals. DEA offices in Phnom Penh and New Jersey ran the joint investigation, which the US Embassy described as a takedown of a local network moving money for the cartel. A July UN report flagged the region as a financial and logistics hub for Latin American crime groups. Several foreign operatives were arrested, but no charges have been announced as of yet.

Read more: AP (cartel network), Khmer Times (intelligence sharing), CryptoRank (crypto scrutiny)

Ex-Director Confesses to Visa Sticker Theft

Tho Samnang, until April the director general of the Foreign Affairs Ministry's General Directorate of Legal, Consular and Border Affairs, has confessed to stealing more than 6,000 type-C visa stickers and issuing them to alleged scam operators, the Anti-Corruption Unit said. He told investigators he destroyed another 4,000, which the ACU is still searching for. Three Foreign Ministry officials have now been sent to court over the theft, misuse, and disappearance of at least 10,000 official forms, some of which were apparently used by foreigners to run cyber fraud operations. Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Eat Sophea tried to keep the blast radius small, saying Samnang's case was one of "an individual's misconduct" and confirming that she did not yet know how many officials were involved.

Read more: CamboJA News (visa theft), Cambodia Daily (enforcement tally), AFP (casino licenses), Khmer Times (official response)

Non-Crime and Punishment

Kem Monovithya's royal decree came with a ministerial post, making her Hun Manet's special envoy for investment promotion and the Thai border dispute. A Phnom Penh court gave defrocked monk Chea Vuthy 18 months for incitement because of social media comments about displaced people on the border, and police in Oddar Meanchey jailed Candlelight deputy commune chief Nhean Sarom after a former colleague disclosed a private phone call critical of local services. Sarom's wife says he has kidney disease and high blood pressure, and fears mistreatment in provincial prison. Licadho counts around 131 opposition politicians and activists currently jailed over their public statements, mostly on incitement charges. Kem Sokha's lawyer says Monovithya's appointment is separate from her father's case and does not make her a CPP member.

Read more: CamboJA News (appointment reaction), CamboJA News (jailed activists), CamboJA News (Sarom case), Cambodia Daily (political read), Khmer Times (opposition reaction)

699,000 Farm Households Are Carrying Debt

The Cambodia Agriculture Survey 2024 reported that 699,000 households were carrying loans out of the 1.87 million doing farm work nationwide. Apparently, about three-fifths of the borrowing went to cover farming operations, not emergencies or land disputes. At a Phnom Penh forum, cooperative representative Hy Sochan said the squeeze was due to low crop prices at the market gate, even as fertilizer and seed are currently quite costly. GRAIN's Afsar Jafri thinks the pressure is at least partly due to a shift toward industrial agriculture that leaves smallholders (who still grow most of the country's food) dependent on commercial seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides.

Tower Opens With Planet Hollywood, Ramsay Burger

JS Group opened the 170-meter JS Tower in BKK1, the building announced as Chief Tower at its 2023 topping-out before a rebrand and a rethink of what it is for. Grade-A offices now share the address with Southeast Asia's first Planet Hollywood Hotel (including 148 themed rooms), Gordon Ramsay Burger, the chef's first restaurant in the region, and a 360-degree observatory deck. The pivot away from just office space is par for the course in the current market. Phnom Penh had roughly 1.2 million square meters of office stock in the first half of 2026, occupancy was near 64%, and Grade-A rents are about $24 per square meter per month.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

WeChat Pay Meets KHQR at the Register

Chinese tourists can now pay at local shops by scanning ACLEDA's KHQR codes with WeChat Pay, without any need for cash. Phase 1 of the link connects into ACLEDA's network of 5.97 million Super App users and more than 860,000 merchant partners, for shopping, dining, hotels, transport, and entertainment. The connection runs one direction for now, as KHQR users still cannot scan into WeChat's system in mainland China.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

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Thailand 20260821

August Whitcraft — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:00:41 GMT

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PM Anutin Brings Jet Fuel to Canberra

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul made Australia his first overseas stop since taking office in late 2025, and he arrived with jet fuel access on his mind as US-led strikes on Iran are rattling energy supply chains around the world. In Canberra, Anutin and Anthony Albanese agreed to regular defense ministers' meetings and told police to go after the scam networks that fleece millions from Australians each year. Australia sells Thailand roughly $1 billion in natural gas and more than $700 million in petroleum each year, while buying about $6.5 billion in Thai-made cars in return.

Read more: Yahoo News (police pledge), CamboJA (trade)

Sanctioned General Gets a Guard of Honor in Bangkok

Gen Ye Win Oo, Myanmar's US-sanctioned former spymaster and new defense chief, chose Bangkok for his first trip abroad since taking the job. Gen Ukris Boontanondha gave him a tri-service guard of honor before talks on the 2,400-kilometer border and military education, a polished welcome for a junta that wants (needs?) desperately to look less isolated than it is. Anutin gave Min Aung Hlaing a similar red-carpet reception earlier this month, which Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow defended by saying, "It's not about legitimacy, it's about reality."

Read more: Nation (army talks), Malay Mail

Excise Rewrite Targets Chinese Auto Imports

The Finance Ministry wants a new auto tax structure ready by September, with lower rates for carmakers building factories that genuinely manufacture autos in Thailand and higher rates for those who more or less just ship in finished vehicles. The current gap, 10% excise on imports versus 2% for local assembly, has not stopped Chinese brands from using zero-tariff access under the ASEAN-China trade deal instead of building CKD lines. EVs made up almost a third of domestic auto sales in the first half of 2026, and imports accounted for more than half of the number. The market rose 14% to 346,000 vehicles. Subsidies have been shrinking as well.

Anti-Graft Body Traces Exam-Fixing Cash

Financial records of suspects in this year's civil-service exam scandal show cash flows of more than 1 billion baht going all the way back to a 2021 scheme that rigged municipal recruitment exams in Pattaya, NACC secretary-general Surapong Intarathaworn said. Investigators say the network was working in both years and altering raw scores inside the computer registry so chosen candidates were able to land executive posts. The commission has moved the older files into a joint inquiry as AMLO is tracing the money. Courts have convicted in 98% of cases the commission has referred for prosecution, a heady rate the agency is likely to be happy to keep sharing with anyone who will listen.

Read more: Bangkok Post (money trail), Nation (AI passport probe)

Photo by Humphrey M on Unsplash

SRT Approves Design Work on Two Rail Lines

The State Railway board approved 392 million baht in design and environmental contracts for the 304-kilometer Nakhon Sawan-Ban Phai single-track line and the 230-kilometer Chatturat-Nong Bua Lamphu double-track route. The Nakhon Sawan-Ban Phai line is expected to cost 41.85 billion baht. The MAA Consultant-led consortium that won the Nakhon Sawan-Ban Phai design job trimmed roughly a quarter off its fee, from 275 million baht to 200 million baht, VAT included, without changing the scope. Contracts are expected to be signed in September, and design will start late this year.

Cabinet Gets Another Gun-Control Draft

The government is reviewing firearm controls after two deadly shootings near Bangkok pushed gun violence back into the public eye and onto the Cabinet table. Anutin has ordered a pause on the issuance of new gun permits, a review of existing licenses and a draft law within 60 days to tighten firearms data, trade rules and penalties. Thailand has more than 10 million civilian firearms in circulation and roughly four in ten may be illegal. The hard part of gun control will be finding the guns that have already moved through family drawers, via online sellers and through the welfare-gun pipeline for officials.

Read more: Bangkok Post (draft timeline), CNA (gun ownership), Prachatai (death toll)

Ethanol Producers Face a Subsidy Hangover

Thailand's ethanol producers are warning of a glut when biofuel price subsidies expire on Sept. 24. The current support has helped keep demand moving through gasohol blends, and the industry worries that removing it will leave producers with more ethanol than fuel retailers want to buy. That puts Bangkok in the position of trying to cut subsidy bills without knocking a protected supply chain sideways. Farmers, mills and fuel sellers all have a piece of this, so a clean exit was never going to be simple.

Nan Floods Turn Into a Northern Business Problem

Flooding in Nan has killed at least two people and affected more than 30,000, with more rain threatening recovery work. Nan has been declared a disaster zone, and tourism operators in the North are asking for flood defenses and relief before cancellations spread beyond the worst-hit districts. The immediate problem is rescue and cleanup, followed by a rebuilding of confidence, especially for small hotels, tour operators and shops that aren’t able to wait out a long monsoon slump.

Read more: Nation (death toll), Nation (rain forecast), Bangkok Post (Nan recovery), Bangkok Post (tourism operators), ITIJ (travel disruption)

Tourist Dip Meets Export Optimism

Thailand saw 19.76 million foreign tourist arrivals through Aug. 15, down only 3% from a year earlier, with spending at 957.6 billion baht. Chinese visitors are still the biggest group, but short-haul softness is showing up at the wrong time for hotels and retailers. The Commerce Ministry is more upbeat on exports, saying shipments could grow at a double-digit rate and reach 12 trillion baht this year if no new surprises appear. Retailers are less cheerful, thought - they’re asking for measures to lift spending since export optimism doesn’t pay the rent in an empty shop.

Read more: Bangkok Post (tourist arrivals), Bangkok Post (export target), Bangkok Post (retail proposals)

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Vietnam 20260820

August Whitcraft — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 02:11:47 GMT

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Hanoi Chases 10% Growth as Trade Balance Slips

GDP was reported 8.18% in the first half of 2026, one of the country's strongest showings on record and well ahead of Malaysia's 6% and China's 4.3%. Citi raised its full-year forecast to around 8%. Hanoi still wants at least 10%, which is a pace that might make for uncomfortable comparisons with the Southeast Asian boom before the 1997 financial crisis. Manufacturing was reported to have grown by more than 10%, and investment has kept growing across state, private, and foreign channels. The weak bit is, unfortunately, demand. Household consumption, almost two-thirds of GDP, is only recovering modestly, retail sales are growing more slowly than a year ago, and the goods trade balance slipped into deficit early in 2026 before widening through June.

Read more: Bloomberg (growth warning), VnEconomy (capital policy), VnEconomy (exports)

Hanoi Squeezes Bank Margins as Credit Outpaces Deposits

Agribank, Vietcombank and VietinBank have rolled out a combined $6.8 billion in credit packages priced 1 to 2 points below their normal lending rates, after PM Le Minh Hung told banks to make cuts. The banks are being squeezed from both sides. Credit growth reached nearly 9% by end-July while deposits grew only 5.75%, and system-wide bad debts are near $12 billion, up 17% from December.

Read more: Vietnam Investment Review (bank comments)

Property Swallows a Quarter of the Loan Book

One in four dollars the banking system has lent out is in real estate. Property credit was VND5.146 quadrillion ($196 billion) at the end of June, up 8.3% since December, and grew roughly in line with total credit, which rose 8.98% to VND20.26 quadrillion by end-July. Almost all of the exposure is in medium- and long-term loans, while bad debt in the sector climbed 10.5% even as the system-wide bad debt ratio eased to 3.31%. The State Bank says it will keep directing credit toward its priority sectors, including rental housing and large projects that are expected to have spillover effects.

Read more: VnEconomy

US-Bound Containers Up 8% as China Volumes Drop

US container imports from Asia fell 5.3% from a year earlier in July to 1.82 million TEUs, with China down 7.8% to 944,270 TEUs as importers front-loaded before the next tariff deadline. Vietnam moved the other way, shipping 282,846 TEUs to US ports, up 8.2%, and widening its lead over South Korea, which slipped 1% to 206,089 TEUs. Through the first seven months, the swing is milder. Asian import volumes are down less than 1% to 11.87 million TEUs.

HCMC Nears FDI Target Five Months Early

Ho Chi Minh City pulled in $9.8 billion in foreign direct investment over the first seven months of 2026, gaining almost 45% on the year and already reaching nearly 90% of its $11 billion full-year goal. Science and technology projects accounted for 467 deals worth $557.7 million, still a sliver of the total but the category which mandarins have been keen to talk up. Manufacturing is keeping pace too, as the processing and manufacturing sector grew 11.2%, ahead of the city's 10.7% industrial production index, as exports notched $57.84 billion.

Read more: VnEconomy

Keppel Pitches HCMC on Data Centers

Keppel's real estate CEO Louis Lim told HCMC Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc that the Singaporean group wants to expand its $4 billion Vietnam portfolio, anchored by Saigon Centre and Saigon Sports City, into data centers and other tech-adjacent sectors. The pitch comes on the heals of G42's $1 billion AI data-center commitment to the city. City officials were doing some pitching of their own, trying to convince Keppel to build next-generation facilities as HCMC tries to cast itself as a regional innovation and digital-economy hub. Keppel also asked for city help clearing investment red tape on existing projects. No figures, no sites and no timelines were discussed alongside the data-center talk.

EVFTA Exporters Face Brussels' Residue Rules

Six years into the Europe-Vietnam FTA, 99% of tariff lines to the EU are duty-free and two-way trade got to almost $74 billion (end-2025). Exporters in Ho Chi Minh City are hearing a less celebratory message, though, because they say the real barrier is now chemistry, not customs. France is using a zero-tolerance policy on pesticide residues, Brussels wants all packaging recyclable by 2030, and coffee, rubber and wood shipments now have to prove their supply chains are deforestation-free.

Starlink Launches With a 600,000-Terminal Cap

Starlink went live with household plans at $43.30 a month and hardware kits from $331, which are prices well above the sub-$10 mobile broadband most users currently pay for service from Viettel, VNPT or MobiFone. The pilot license caps the network at four gateways and 600,000 terminals, which is only about 2.5% of the market. Regulators are putting the project forward as a gap-filler for maritime areas, remote provinces and emergency response, not as a head-on fight with fiber and/or the mobile telecom incumbents.

Read more: VnEconomy

Carbon Credits Find a Singapore Buyer

Resolution No. 235/NQ-CP activates the Article 6 carbon trading agreement Hanoi and Singapore signed in 2025, clearing emission-reduction projects to sell into Singapore's CIX and ACX exchanges. The Foreign Ministry will do the paperwork for an official start date, but the legal plumbing is complete. Developers working on projects that meet international standards will be able to register credits with a guaranteed cross-border buyer. Singapore firms that might otherwise be facing a carbon tax get a respite from a nearby supplier. Hanoi has not yet published how project approvals will work.

Read more: VnEconomy

Hanoi Puts a Sell-By Date on State Companies

Decision 40/2026/QD-TTg gives ministries until August 31 to file restructuring plans for state-controlled companies from 2026 to 2030. The decree replaces an existing compliance checklist with a financial-efficiency test, meaning land banks, return on equity and future earnings potential will all be count toward valuation in addition to book assets. Land-rich state firms could see valuations move the most dramatically, since Decree 57 now forces the value of yearly leased land-use rights into the calculations.

2027 Deadline for Highway EV Chargers

The Department for Roads has given provincial authorities until January 1, 2027 to install charging stations at every expressway rest stop, with at least 10% of parking spaces wired to charge EVs. Provinces are expected to report on progress by August 25. Any rest stop that was operating before October 5, 2024 will be expected to comply, retrofitting existing infrastructure if necessary.

Laos 20260819

August Whitcraft — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 02:18:13 GMT

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Chinese Approvals USD 8.5 Billion

The government approved USD 8.5 billion worth of investment projects in the first seven months of 2026, up almost 70 percent year-on-year. Capital that has been sent so far is closer to USD 1 billion, which is a timely reminder that approval totals are not the same thing as money-in-hand. Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith told an investment conference in Vientiane that the cumulative tally since Laos opened to private investment in 1989 is 5,394 projects worth USD 65.5 billion. China leads with 970 projects worth USD 15 billion, followed by Vietnam at USD 12.7 billion and Thailand at USD 6.9 billion.

Read more: Laotian Times

Rare Earth Pause Comes With Two New Targets

Vientiane suspended a Chinese-operated rare earth project because of legal compliance and environmental violations. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce also said field surveys had found two new target zones, one around the Bolikhamxay-Khammuane border and another in the Sekong-Attapeu area. No reserve size or grade has been discussed publicly. The suspended operation is in the north, where a 2024 wastewater discharge polluted the Van and Xam rivers in 36 villages in Houaphanh. A little over a dozen rare earth projects are running nationwide, most of them Chinese-backed, and they feed Beijing's magnet industry with dysprosium and terbium that Chinese deposits can’t fully supply. Late last year, Vientiane asked the National Assembly to convert protected forest in Xieng Khouang and Houaphanh into rare earth mining and processing land.

Read more: Rare Earth Exchanges (named operators), Laotian Times (new target zones)

Border Checkpoint Blows Past Revenue Target

The Lalai International Customs Checkpoint in Salavanh, on the Vietnam border, collected LAK 467.84 billion, or about USD 20.7 million, in the first half of 2026. The windfall was more than ten times its half-year plan and far above the same period last year. The 3rd Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge in Khammouane brought in USD 33.2 million, up more than 140 percent, on fuel and goods imported for re-export including vehicles, live cattle and fresh fruit. The newly opened 5th Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge in Bolikhamxay reached 86 percent of its annual target in its first six months, with fuel making up almost all revenue. Good to see that trade in the region appears alive and well.

Read more: Laotian Times

Photo by Hakan Nural on Unsplash

Vientiane Pitches Data Centers on Cheap Hydro

The government wants data centers, AI and fintech to headline the 2026-2030 investment plan in a turn away from the mining and hydropower deals (please don’t mention the bitcoin) that have shaped the economy for two decades. Deputy Finance Minister Phonevanh Outhavong made the pitch at an investment promotion conference this week, leaning on the country's inexpensive hydropower at a moment when global data center spending is gobbling up an ever-expanding share of greenfield investment. No incentive package, land terms or single site is yet public, but officials say they want projects that bring skilled jobs and connect firms to regional supply chains, which is the right aspiration. The bigger question will be if the cost of power alone will be enough to compensate for the missing pieces.

Read more: The Star

Pakngum Lines Up a Sixth Industrial Park

The government cleared a 24-month feasibility study on August 13 for the Vientiane-Lidu Industrial Park, a 307-hectare site in four Pakngum district villages pitched to draw USD 1 billion. Zone A would take mineral processing and power infrastructure, Zone B would handle agricultural processing, and Zone C would house offices, warehouses and worker dorms. It is the sixth SEZ feasibility study cleared under the 2025 industrial zone decree, joining a 6,279-hectare clean-energy and aluminum zone in Oudomxay and a separate USD 165 million estate already underway in Vientiane-Pak Ngum. The country has 21 approved SEZs with registered capital above USD 41 billion. As with the broader investment numbers, registered capital is a flattering version of the story. At the Golden Triangle zone, tax revenue fell 49 percent to USD 1.5 million after 551 businesses closed.

Read more: Laotian Times

Hydropower Becomes an EV Sales Pitch

The government wants to seee a 30 percent electric share of the national fleet by 2030 and has paused imports of gas-fueled cars to speed the shift. The reason is that Laos has both cheap domestic hydropower and needs to import gasoline and diesel, a problem that is exacerbated anytime the fuel supply gets jumpy. Chinese automakers now have room to press into a market where pump supply has become unreliable. No subsidy scheme or charging-network plan has been detailed yet, but the import pause is the sharpest policy lever pulled so far.

Umoney Gets First Crack at Digital Lending

The Bank of the Lao PDR approved Star Fintech's Umoney in June so they could test digital loans in a regulatory sandbox. Umoney now claims 1.8 million active users, more than 15,000 QR merchant points and more than 5,000 cash-in and cash-out agents in all 18 provinces. It’s been building that network since launching as the country's first licensed mobile money service in 2018. There’s a real credit gap is real. World Bank Findex data shows that 7 percent of adults borrowed from a formal institution or mobile money account in the latest survey, down from 9 percent in 2017 and 2021, despite more than 280 banks, microfinance firms, leasing companies, pawn shops and payment providers already in the market.

Bolikhamxay Bust Nets Almost Two Tons of Ivory

Police raided a trafficking network in Pakkading district on August 16, detaining 11 foreign nationals and seizing 1,755.6 kilograms of suspected elephant ivory along with two 45.5-kilogram carcasses resembling black panthers. Nationalities have not been disclosed, and investigators say they are still tracing others tied to the ring. The seizure dwarfs every prior case this year, including more than 110 kilograms of ivory, rhino horn and pangolin parts in Luang Prabang in late June.

Read more: The Star

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Myanmar 20260818

August Whitcraft — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 02:04:49 GMT

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Min Aung Hlaing Takes His Dawei Pitch to Moscow

Min Aung Hlaing showed up in Moscow on Monday for his seventh Russia trip since the coup, bringing along Tanintharyi's chief minister for a visit that’s intended to boost the Dawei Special Economic Zone. Russia's Inter RAO signed a June deal with the Launglon Economic Development Company for a coal plant, oil refinery, and deep-sea port, and the Kremlin agenda also includes a review of last year's Rosatom pact for a small modular nuclear reactor. Thailand is looking at a similar playbook and at a Thai-Russian Joint Commission meeting a few days earlier, Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa talked up Dawei as the anchor for an overland route to Chon Buri that would allow cargo to avoid the Strait of Malacca. A five-year military cooperation deal signed in February, with details still under wraps, will round out the visit. No signing dates were given for any of the SEZ projects.

Read more: Internazionale (prior visits), WRAL (business forum), DVB (Putin meeting), Anadolu (Kremlin history), MRTV (delegation)

Junta Retakes Magway Oil Field, Kills CDF-Asho Chief

A three-month military offensive to retake Magway's oil field has killed nearly 30 civilians, destroyed more than 330 homes in Myaing and Pauk, and displaced tens of thousands. An ambush 77 kilometers west of Magway city killed CDF-Asho Commander-in-Chief Salai Yoe Chin and two other members during a logistics run in Ngape Township. Ngape sits on the Ann-Padan corridor, where CDF-Asho and the Arakan Army have jointly overrun at least three junta outposts since October, squeezing supply lines to the military's Western Command in Ann. The AA now controls 14 of Arakan State's 17 townships in addition to Paletwa in (neighboring) Chin State. The Asho Chin group says it plans to keep fighting alongside the AA.

Read more: Myanmar Now (displacement), DVB (ambush)

Junta Sorts Rohingya Into Residents, Ghosts, Terrorists

The junta's Foreign Ministry says it has verified 308,797 of the 828,824 names that Bangladesh gave them as former Rakhine residents, and expects to take them back once security in the state stabilizes. That asterisk is going to be doing some heavy lifting, given the Arakan Army's hold over much of Rakhine. Another 4,241 names were put in amother bucket as accused terrorists, a label Bangladesh's repatriation commissioner Mizanur Rahman poopooed by saying "terrorist or not, they are residents of Myanmar." A further 113,507 names were not able to be verified at all. Previous repatriation arrangements in 2018 and 2019 resulted in *checks notes*: no returns. The United Council of Rohingya, the elected body representing refugees in Cox's Bazar, says the whole affair is "misleading propaganda." It rejects Naypyidaw's continued use of "Bengali" and its claim that only 540,000 people left during 2017, a figure Dhaka also disputes.

Read more: New Age (Rohingya response), DVB (Malaysia asylum deal), Anadolu (fleeing figures), New Age (Bangladesh response), New Age (population dispute)

EU Adds €10.5 Million as Monsoon Floods Hit Sagaing

The EU is adding €10.5 million in humanitarian aid, bringing its 2026 total to €49.1 million. The UN now says 16.2 million people need help and 12.4 million are going hungry. Monsoon flooding since July has hit an estimated 390,000 people in Sagaing, Rakhine, Ayeyarwady, and Kachin. Sagaing makes up 230,000 of the number as villages have been submerged and rice seedlings washed out in Wetlet Township.

Read more: AP (cholera), Straits Times (flood relocation), ReliefWeb (EU aid), ReliefWeb (WFP biscuits)

Photo by Thomas Hackl on Unsplash

Food Prices Up a Fifth, Biggest Increase in A-P

Five months into the Red Sea shipping disruption, the country's food basket is costing a fifth more than it did before. It’s the biggest increase the WFP tracks in Asia-Pacific. A strong El Nino forecast and stubbornly high fertilizer prices are hitting rice and maize farmers as crops come into critical growth stages. High input costs are also limiting spending on irrigation and crop protection, which is grim math for desperate families watching prices climb out of reach.

Air Force Bombs Village, Stray Rounds Hit Mae Sot (Again)

A junta jet bombed Auk Zee Kaing village in Rathedaung Township. Two hundred miles east, fighting between junta troops and the Karen National Liberation Army around Min La Pan sent stray rounds back into Ban Huai Maha Wong in Thailand's Mae Sot district, hitting the same homes that were already damaged in previous exchanges. No injuries were reported in Mae Sot. Junta forces are now flying supplies in to frontline troops to try and prevent ambushes on overland convoys, a change in strategy that appears to be increasing the frequency of airstrikes.

Read more: Khaosod English (Myawaddy clashes), Narinjara (Thandwe deaths), DVB (Rakhine toll)

Bangkok-Naypyidaw Pollution Pact Misses Wa State Mines

Ambitiously, Bangkok and Naypyidaw's cross-border river pollution pact covers waterways the junta doesn’t even control. The rare earth mines poisoning them are in United Wa State Army territory in eastern Shan State, beyond the reach of Min Aung Hlaing's administrative authority. The Shan Human Rights Foundation says that not only that, but the deal also has no enforcement mechanism. Myanmar has earned $3.6 billion from rare earth exports to China since 2021.

Ex-Ambassador Goes on Trial for London Residence

Kyaw Zwar Minn has gone on trial in London for trespassing at the ambassador's residence in northwest London, where he’s lived since being locked out of the embassy in 2021. After declaring loyalty to Aung San Suu Kyi, he spent a night in his car outside the embassy before moving into the residence, but prosecutors say he was told to vacate by both Naypyidaw and the UK Foreign Office. His lawyer, David Perry, argues Min Aung Hlaing's government can’t lawfully terminate his license at the address.

Resistance Alliance Names Ten-Seat Military Command

SCEF's Military Affairs Coordinating Body now has (some) names at the top. NUG Defense Minister Yee Mon is secretary, and two unnamed Chin National Front representatives are joint secretaries. The 10-seat panel is pulling senior commanders from member organizations including the KIO and KNU. Zaw Wai Soe, the SCEF Coordinator who also serves as NUG Minister for Health and Education, confirmed the body's creation in a recent Diplomat piece but declined to name the other seven seat-holders.

Cambodia 20260817

August Whitcraft — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 03:39:43 GMT

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Pentagon, Phnom Penh Restart Joint Military Drills

Joint military exercises with the United States will start again in 2027 after a decade-long freeze that began when Phnom Penh scrapped the Angkor Sentinel drills in early 2017, not long after holding its first Golden Dragon exercises with China. Prime Minister Hun Manet announced the resumption after meeting US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby in Phnom Penh. Colby also thanked Defence Minister Tea Seiha for the January port call by the USS Cincinnati, an Independence-class littoral combat ship that became the first US Navy vessel to dock at Ream Naval Base since its Chinese-funded renovation, and welcomed further US naval visits to the facility. Washington has pressed Phnom Penh for years over possible Chinese military use of Ream; Cambodian officials say the base is open to any friendly navy. Cambodia and China held their largest-ever joint exercises in 2025, featuring artillery, warships and robot battle dogs.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (Colby regional tour), Straits Times (territorial integrity), Khmer Times (Peace Accords support)

The Draft Gets a Rulebook

A 41-article sub-decree signed Thursday details how the government will run the conscription drive ordered a year ago, setting two years of service for men aged 18 to 25. Conscripts get 400,000 riel a month (that’s about $100), plus food, housing and family benefits comparable to professional soldiers, in addition to a guarantee that their job or school seat will be waiting when they return. The guarantee has a loophole though, since employers can decline to take workers back if they pay severance under the Labor Law instead, a provision labor rights group Central's Moeun Tola warns invites discrimination against returning conscripts. Specialists in engineering, IT, healthcare and mine clearance can apply for exemption by signing public-interest work agreements with the armed forces for a term equivalent to their service.

Read more: CamboJA News

Hun Manet Sells the North as US Counts Scammers

Prime Minister Hun Manet stood in Stung Treng on Wednesday touting $2.7 billion in proposed investment in four northern provinces, tax breaks, cheap loans and 80,000 promised jobs, telling skeptics "our country has a war, our country has scams" but insisting investment "continues to be attractive." The pitch came days after immigration chief Sok Veasna announced more than 17,700 foreign scam suspects had been deported between January 1 and August 9, part of more than 50,000 total expulsions this year. Around the same time, US Chargé d'Affaires Aleks Zittle sat down with Justice Minister Koeut Rith to press for prosecutions of scam masterminds, not only the low-level suspects filling deportation flights. The scam industry reportedly swindles more than $12.5 billion a year worldwide. Cambodia says it has arrested about 800 ringleaders and shut more than 250 scam centers since July 2025.

Read more: The Star (analyst quotes), CamboJA News (70 project proposals), CamboJA News (sanctioned senators)

Hun Manet Courts Kem Sokha's Daughter

Prime Minister Hun Manet posted a photo of himself with Kem Monovithya, Kem Sokha's daughter and former CNRP deputy director-general of public affairs, calling it part of a "generational partnership." Two days later Senate President Hun Sen hosted Sokha, his wife and Monovithya for a three-hour sit-down, praising Monovithya as, in his words, "valuable human capital." The gestures come after Sokha's May royal pardon, which erased his 27-year treason sentence and later lifted his five-year overseas travel ban, though political restrictions from his conviction remain. Public meetings between senior ruling-party figures and prominent opposition families have been rare since the CNRP's 2017 dissolution. Commune elections are a year out, national elections two. No policy commitments, cabinet posts, or party registration changes have followed either meeting.

Bangkok Hands Out Land in Disputed Border Zone

Thai authorities parceled out land to Thai citizens on August 13 in Chouk Chey village, the patch of Banteay Meanchey between Boundary Pillars 45 and 47 that Cambodian families were evicted from during last year's fighting. Phnom Penh's Foreign Ministry protested two days later, as it said the handouts were an attempt to legitimize occupation before the Joint Boundary Commission finishes its demarcation. No Thai government response has been reported so far.

Read more: The Star, Khmer Times, CamboJA News (psychological distress)

Photo by sam onn chan on Unsplash

Garment Bosses Told to Buy Robots

Some 845 new factories opened in the first half of 2026, adding more than 90,000 jobs and moving the Labour Ministry's employment forecast up to 11 million workers by year's end. Garment exports were $11.4 billion last year, part of a $15.5 billion apparel, footwear and travel-goods total that grew almost 16 percent. But at last week's textile fair in Phnom Penh, Industry Minister Hem Vanndy told an industry that employs around 700,000 workers (mostly women), that its edge is going to depend on AI, robotics and automated cutting lines. The 2026 minimum wage for garment workers is $208 a month.

Read more: The Star (expo exhibitors), Fibre2Fashion (wage history), Khmer Times (skill gaps)

Timor Sea Veteran to Chair Gulf Maritime Panel

Australian diplomat Katrina Cooper, the DFAT deputy secretary for Southeast Asia who served as Canberra's co-agent in the Timor Sea conciliation that produced the 2018 Australia-Timor-Leste maritime boundary treaty, will chair the five-member UNCLOS commission arbitrating the Cambodia-Thailand dispute over the Gulf of Thailand's Overlapping Claims Area. Cambodia picked Peter Taksøe-Jensen of Denmark and Jean-Marc Thouvenin of France; Thailand picked Rüdiger Wolfrum of Germany and Albert Hoffmann of South Africa; the four then settled on Cooper, who doubles as Australia's special envoy for the multi-billion-dollar Greater Sunrise gas project. No date has been set for substantive hearings on the oil and gas reserves in the zone. The process began June 2 after Thailand ended a 25-year memorandum governing the zone, and Bangkok filed its formal response on June 19. Phnom Penh says it expects the commission's first procedural meeting within weeks.

Read more: Cambodianess, Khmer Times (12-month report deadline)

Kuehne+Nagel Triples Down on Phnom Penh

Kuehne+Nagel is building a 20,000-square-metre Container Freight Station in Phnom Penh, more than tripling its Cambodian handling capacity when it opens in June 2027. The site is near Phnom Penh International Airport and the road connects to Thailand and Vietnam, with Sihanoukville Autonomous Port handling roughly 1.3 million TEUs last year and Phnom Penh's port about 600,000. The warehouse is designed for five-tonne-per-square-metre floor loads and targets ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001 certification, with solar panels, battery forklifts and rainwater capture built in. David Roussiere, the firm's managing director for Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, said the facility will serve consumer goods customers moving cargo in the region.

Ritz-Carlton Books Phnom Penh for 2032

Marriott and Kith Meng's Royal Group have agreed to build the country's first Ritz-Carlton on Norodom Boulevard in Daun Penh, with 152 rooms, 119 branded residences, and a Grade A office tower in the mixed-use complex. No financing details were disclosed. Opening is expected for 2032, well past the current tourism slump that has Siem Reap discounting rooms to fill them. Kith Meng says it is "a symbol of prosperity for the entire country," pitching the residences as "the pinnacle of ultra-luxury living."

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Gov’t Sets $30 Million Startup Target for 2030

The National Strategy on Startup Development 2026-2030, launched Tuesday at Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel by Deputy PM Aun Pornmoniroth, targets $30 million in total startup investment, 300 startups in incubation programs, and 100 startups receiving funding by 2030. It also wants to lift the country's Startup System Performance Index classification from "Growing" to "Expanding." Individual ministries will be required to set their own KPIs aligned with the four national targets.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Bou Meng, Who Painted Pol Pot to Survive, Dead at 85

Bou Meng, one of only seven known survivors of the Khmer Rouge's S-21 torture center, died Friday at 85 of age-related illness. His ability to paint Pol Pot's portrait was what kept him alive at the prison, where he was held for almost two years starting in 1977 and where an estimated 16,000 people were killed. He testified in 2009 against commandant Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, and recalled being ordered to paint Ho Chi Minh's head on the body of a dog. Duch was convicted in 2010, sentenced to life, and died in prison in 2020 at 77.