Perspectives
by Lia Sciortino
Perspectives
China’s PR Problem Rears Its Head
Johanna Son
.bmp)
CHIANG MAI, Dec 11 (TerraViva/IPS Asia-Pacific) - Powerful neighbour. A rising power. Old friend. Big, secretive investor. Big boy of the region.
These were some of the terms participants at a talk-show format discussion at the Mekong Media Forum used when asked to share the images of China they get from the media.
Reading Media
Johanna Son
BANGKOK -- Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia. What images might these words conjure up in the minds of international consumers of news? Perhaps war, maybe the Khmer Rouge. Or they might say, ‘Oh, it’s that those countries that had that war some time ago. . . they’re near one another, and they’re all the same’.
China: Benign Bully of the Mekong?
Johanna Son
SYDNEY, Oct 3 (IPS Asia-Pacific) – Over the last decade or so, China’s deft use of soft power has seen South-east Asian neighbours’ view of it change from a looming threat to a largely friendly, if still imposing, giant to the north.
Economy
Golden Dreams in Cambodia, ‘Nation of Gold’
Li Liang
Female employees at a Chinese garment factory.
PHNOM PENH (Imaging Our Mekong)- The air was choking hot; the sun shone brightly. Motorcycles were weaving their way through the busy traffic of vehicles and pedestrians as dust flew around on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital. Row upon row of establishments flashed by, before we came upon an inconspicuous sign with five Chinese characters: ‘Jia Hua Gong Ye Yuan’, or the Jiahua Industrial Park.
CAMBODIA: Resource Curse or Blessing?
By Andrew Nette
PHNOM PENH, May 28 (IPS) - Cambodia is facing a natural resource boom, but donors and non-government organisations (NGOs) warn that this potential windfall could be squandered without measures to improve financial transparency, promote better governance and curb corruption.
China, Cambodia Get Closer
PHNOM PENH - China's Yunnan province expanded economic cooperation with Cambodia in fields ranging from real estate to hydropower plant and electricity transmission network under new agreements signed here on Apr. 7.
Laos-Vietnam Trade Has Much Room to Grow
Bilateral trade between Laos and Vietnam can be quadrupled to reach one billion U.S. dollars by 2010, A Lao official said in February.
VIETNAM: Poverty Pushes Farmers to Undercut Ban on Duck Breeding
Ngo Thi Thu Phuong – Vietnam News*
TAY NINH, Vietnam, Feb 12 (Newsmekong) - On a rough, earthen road surrounded by green rice paddies, Phan Anh Tam throws unhusked rice, mixed with mash and dried fish, to the thousands of white ducks waddling around his thin legs.
China’s Aid Flows Downstream to Laos
By Qian Xiaofeng
VIENTIANE -- In the centre of Laos’ leafy capital, just two blocks from where the Mekong River marks the border with Thailand, stands the Lao National Cultural Hall, a gleaming, modern structure trimmed with gold paint. Outside, a banner portrait advertising a concert by the South Korean pop star, Kangta, shows how the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, one of the world’s five remaining communist countries, is quietly opening to the outside world.
China Pulling Southeast Asia into Its Orbit
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING, May 1 (Newsmekong) - The global financial crisis is proving a boon for a resurgent China, which is poised to exert ever greater influence in Southeast Asia.
China Makes Deep Inroads into Cambodia
Antoaneta Bezlova
SISOPHON, Cambodia, Apr 10 (Newsmekong) – Chem Hout sits at the Maxxi coffee shop on a busy thoroughfare in this rural town of western Cambodia, waiting for the school bus to drop off his nine-year-old son. When the mini-bus eventually pulls by, it carries the Chinese characters for the local Chinese bilingual school – the enviable choice of Chem and other parents who can afford to send their children there.
For Vietnamese Farmers, Good Harvests Don’t Bring Good Sales
Tran Dinh Thanh Lam
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Nov 6 (Newsmekong) – They produce the majority of rice for this South-east Asian country that ranks among the world’s top rice exporters, but farmers in the Mekong Delta are finding it hard to pick their way a mix of amid fluctuations in government policy, lack of credit, falling global prices and rice stocks sitting in their warehouses.
Cheap Chinese Products in Laos
Souvannaphet Champhone, Lamgneune Latsaath and Somphavanh Khamphachane, Producers, Lao National Television
If you have a limited budget, buy products made in China. This is common knowledge in Laos, where cheap household items, clothes and other consumer goods have been flooding in from the People’s Republic of China.
Lao businessmen, however, are protesting against their aggressive Chinese competitors. Some allege that the low prices of Chinese products are due to unskilled laborers and low quality machines churning out substandard products. Illegal practices, such as unregistered businesses and tax evasion, are also rampant.
Mekong's Avian Flu
UID).jpg)
What's New
Mekong ICT Camp 2010
The Mekong ICT Camp (http://mekongict.org), a biannual training workshop on information, communication, and technologies for citizen media, community health, and civil society practitioners in Mekong subregion, is accepting applications until Mar. 31, 2010. Participants are welcome from the Mekong countries, including Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.
COMING SOON: 'TALKING GENDER IN THE MEKONG MEDIA'
.jpg)
BANGKOK - Do media organisations in the Mekong Region think that gender sensitivity, including giving voices to women, is part of doing better stories? How do they define it within the context of their societies and how do they report on different genders and sexuality? Do they include the use of gender-friendly language in their stylebooks and training programmes? How much is using a gender lens a news habit?