Vietnam and Laos have scaled up bilateral relations to the highest level of friendship and cooperation, known as “Great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation and strategic cohesion”. It is a new framework between the two former Indochinese countries. The emphasis is on strategic cohesion.

Vietnam’s Party General Secretary To Lam’s state visit early this month to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was not headline news. On the surface, it was a symbolic visit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the LPDR and its strengthened party-to-party relations.

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Cambodia and China have signed a $1.2 billion deal to finance an ambitious canal project that aims to boost trade efficiency by linking a branch of the Mekong River near Phnom Penh to a port on the Gulf of Thailand, the Cambodian government agency heading the project announced Friday.

The deal to fund the Funan Techo Canal was signed Thursday during the state visit to Cambodia of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the agency said in a news release. Xi returned home Friday after a three-nation Southeast Asian tour that also included Vietnam and Malaysia.

Construction of the 151.6-kilometer (94-mile) canal began last year but was halted shortly after the Aug. 5 groundbreaking ceremony for reasons that were not made clear. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said at the time that the canal will be built “no matter what the cost,” emphasizing that the project promotes “national prestige, the territorial integrity and the development of Cambodia.”

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HO CHI MINH CITY — Alibaba plans to build a data center in Vietnam to store data locally in compliance with legal requirements, while it currently relies on government-owned facilities.

The Chinese tech group told Nikkei Asia that for now it rents space for computer servers from telecommunications companies Viettel and VNPT, providing one example of how companies have responded since a contentious law took effect in 2022. Google, Amazon and others fought hard against Vietnam’s plan to force them to keep data in the country, but the policy ultimately went through towards the end of that year.

As a result, businesses have been looking for cross-border options.

Dang Minh Tam, solution architect lead at Alibaba Cloud, said the company uses colocation — a term for renting out space from data center operators — partnering with the two state companies to park client data locally. But it also backs up data at its own server farms located across the region, from Taiwan to Singapore.

Alibaba plans to build a data center in Vietnam to keep pace with demand in one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, Tam said. He said he did not yet know the cost and declined to give a timeline for the project, as the details have not been made public. The cost of building a data center can exceed $1 billion.

“Vietnam is a very [high] potential market,” Tam said in an interview. “There’s a lot of space to grow.”

One reason companies like Alibaba might want to build their own servers, in addition to cost considerations, is to ensure greater security and control over their information.

Liability can be an issue when multiple companies are involved in managing the same data, said Leif Schneider, counsel at law firm Luther.

Contracts must be clear “so you always know who bears what risk and responsibility,” he said at a cloud and data center conference in Ho Chi Minh City last week.

Local companies, meanwhile, share Alibaba’s bullish outlook on the market.

Viettel IDC, run by Vietnam’s military, told Nikkei that its customers from Alibaba to Microsoft are demanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) improvements.

It calls its approach “ESGT,” with the added use of technology. For example, tech can be used to track and optimize water use, which is used to keep computers cool and can rack up big costs. Viettel does not currently use much renewable energy but is aiming to make renewables count for 30% of its power consumption by 2030, said technical department manager Nguyen Dinh Tuan.

“We need to prepare for the data center boom,” he said in an interview. “We need to prepare for the sustainability trend.”

Viettel projects the Southeast Asian country’s data center market will expand 15% a year for the foreseeable future, and likely more if a big cloud company like Alibaba invests there.

The expansion is fueled in part by the data localization rules, which Hanoi admits violate its free trade agreements, but which ease the one-party state’s ability to access data. The rules have been a boon for cloud providers that already have server farms in Vietnam, including gaming unicorn VNG and IT company CMC, which said it will construct at least two data centers in the next few years, potentially doubling its capacity.

Vietnam should look to Malaysia and Thailand, whose markets really took off once international players entered the competition, said Evolution Data Centers CEO Darren Webb.

“The countries that try to protect their domestic markets, that doesn’t work,” he said at the industry conference. “The pie doesn’t get bigger.”

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Can Tho (VNA) – Australia will provide 2.5 million AUD (1.64 million USD) for the “Business Partnership Platform: Climate Change Adaptation” programme designed to help businesses in the Mekong Delta region to adapt to climate change.

The funding was announced at a ceremony held by the Australian Consulate General and Can Tho city authority on November 21. 

Australian Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City Sarah Hooper said that the programme, to be implemented from 2023 to 2025, aims to promote women’s startups in agriculture adaptive to climate change, which will help women to develop production and increase incomes effectively. 

She stressed that Australia pays special attention to the development and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region including Vietnam, towards sustainable goals. Since 2000, the Australian Government has invested 650 million AUD (over 427 million USD) in the Mekong Delta region to improve infrastructure, and promote investment attraction, human resources, and innovation including two highlight projects – My Thuan bridge and Cao Lanh bridge.

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HCM City (VNA) – An energy transition seminar on Norwegian-Vietnamese business partnerships opened in Ho Chi Minh on September 13, hosted by the Norwegian Embassy in Vietnam in collaboration with the Oil, Gas and Coal Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

According to experts, the participation and collaboration of the private sector will play a vital role in the implementation of the Vietnamese government’s Power Development Plan VIII with priority to be given to the development of renewable energy.

They also said that the plan is an opportunity for business communities both home and abroad to introduce their expertise and competitive advantages, particularly technology. Specifically, Norwegian energy firms boast strengths in offshore wind power, clean hydro, carbon storage, and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Deputy Ambassador Mette Møglestue said Norway and Vietnam share a determination to become countries with low carbon by 2050. Energy transition is an inevitable process and all countries on the globe must take efforts to achieve this goal.

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The Swiss ambassador, Thomas Gass, met with National Assembly Chairman, Vuong Dinh Hue earlier this week ahead of the 52nd anniversary of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Vietnam later this year.

The two officials discussed bilateral trade and investment with progress on negotiations of a free trade agreement between Vietnam and Switzerland high on the agenda.

Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland) have been working on an agreement since 2012. With at least four rounds of official negotiations completed, an outcome is expected in the near future.

In this context, we take a quick look at what business relations currently look like between these two nations.

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Australia and Laos have been cooperating on water resources management for nearly two decades. Key milestones in recent years include the Sekong Groundwater Management Plan approved earlier this year, the revision of the Water Law endorsed by National Assembly in 2017, the development of key decrees and regulations as well as strategies and management plans for key priority basins of Laos.

A recent achievement of this partnership is the development of the Nam Xam Integrated River Basin Management Plan, endorsed by the Deputy Governor of Houaphanh Province, Mr. Phonesouk Inthavong, and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Mr. Chanthaneth Boualapha.

The Nam Xam Basin is located in north-eastern Laos within Houaphanh Province and is home to almost 200,000 people. It is an important basin that provides fresh water, ecosystem services, and fisheries and supports irrigated agriculture, contributing to people’s incomes and livelihoods. Like many other rivers, the basin is facing increased challenges due to land use change, and increased use of water by different sectors, coupled with climate change. As climate change imposes an increased threat of flooding and droughts across the region, the impacts will be widely felt.

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In an exclusive interview with the Laotian Times, John Pearson, outgoing British Ambassador to Laos, reflects on his four-year diplomatic mission in Laos, sharing insights into his overall experience and shedding light on the environmental challenges faced by the country.

As a diplomat, British Ambassador John Pearson believes in disrupting the status quo at times to improve a situation, and that may involve questioning others instead of just being ‘polite’.

Laotian Times met the Ambassador in the cool interior of the British Embassy on a scorching summer day, but the ambassador welcomed us in his finest suit, offering refreshments before the interview. 

Starting off, Mr. Pearson was keen to express how much he enjoyed his time in Laos and was happy to positively impact the progress of the country and help strengthen ties with the United Kingdom.     

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Confirming that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will pay an official visit to China, China’s Foreign Ministry said that the visit fully demonstrates the high level of China-Cambodia relations. Experts believe that the two countries will play an exemplary role in Southeast Asia and will help to promote the development plans of more members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

At the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, the Cambodian premier will visit China from Thursday to Saturday, China’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday. 

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KRATIE, Cambodia, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) — Cambodia on Monday broke ground for the construction of a bridge across the Mekong River here in the country’s northeastern part, with funds from China.

The ceremony was presided over by Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian, and was attended by thousands of local officials, residents and students.

The 1,761-km-by-13.5-meter bridge, along with a 31.69-km connecting road, will be constructed by the Shanghai Construction Group under China’s preferential loan, and the construction is expected to be completed in 42 months.

Hun Sen said the bridge is another fruitful result of close cooperation and solidarity between Cambodia and China under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

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