Channel News Asia
Japan to donate AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Thailand
Thailand’s health minister said on Monday (Jun 21) that Japan’s government would donate some AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as the Southeast Asian country seeks to shore up supplies after some early delays in its vaccinations.An agreement would be signed on Thursday with the vaccines to be ...
'Nothing about the Mekong is normal now’: Anger along Southeast Asia’s great river as water levels become unpredictable
Thailand: From a distance, it is hard to make sense of the small patches of green emerging from the cracking mud flats of the Mekong River. They are not oases, nor sprouts of river grass along dusty channels where water normally flows; they are golf greens.Recently, ...
Data privacy concerns over Thailand's COVID-19 contact tracing app amid new wave of cases
There have been concerns over data privacy in Thailand’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, as the country battles a new wave of infections.Despite these challenges, the authorities are trying to encourage more people to use the app, including via efforts to protect personal information.Since mid-December, Thailand ...
In times of crisis, Bangkok is finding space to grow its own food
In a neighbouring province of the Thai capital, in one of the metropolis’ hottest and most polluted industrial zones is not an obvious place to start a farming enterprise.But above the dusty, busy streets in Samut Sakhon, a concrete space that before had done little ...
Thailand’s seafood slavery: Why the abuse of fishermen just won't go away
Despite the efforts of the government, exploitation in Thai fisheries still occurs owing to lax inspections, the withholding of wages and evasive reflagging of vessels, the programme Undercover Asia finds out.Aung Ye Tun was just 17 years old when he was tricked and forced to ...
Desmond Ng
Thailand races to create coronavirus vaccine, eyes possible medical tourism boost
Thailand: Momentum is building behind Thailand’s push to create its own coronavirus vaccine, with more manpower and resources dedicated to the effort amid hopes it could boost medical tourism.Thai trials of an experimental vaccine using monkeys started last month, one of at least 100 potential ...
Thailand passes record stimulus package to combat COVID-19 impact
Thailand’s parliament approved on Sunday (May 31) a near-US$60 billion stimulus package, the kingdom’s biggest-ever cash injection, to revive an economy that has been hammered by the coronavirus.The 1.9 trillion baht (US$59.7 billion) package would be a much-needed boost for Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy, expected ...
Bangkok breathes cleaner air during COVID-19 pandemic and experts want it to last
Analysis of air quality in Bangkok since the Thai government began enforcing strict social isolation measures has found significant drop in dangerous pollution levels of more than 20 per cent, as compared with the same time last year.The average levels of PM2.5 – tiny atmospheric ...
Jack Board
The fight to save Bangkok from sinking into watery depths
When landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom and her landscape design studio, Landprocess, created a park in central Bangkok in 2017, it was no ordinary park.It was a green basin to help the city soak up excess water — up to 4.5 million litres — by funnelling ...
World Bank says Thai poverty rate increases, farm income slides
Thailand needs to invest in education and create jobs in higher-income sectors, the World Bank said in a report on Thursday (Mar 5) that showed a rising rate of poverty as the country’s economy slowed.Thailand is Southeast Asia’s largest economy after Indonesia but has lagged ...