Tag: East Asia

The United States is urging Cambodia to be transparent over a proposed $1.7 billion canal financed by China that is worrying Vietnam due to its potential impact on water resource management. “The Cambodian people – along with people in neighboring countries and the broader region – would benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water management, agricultural sustainability, and security,” Wesley Holzer, a U.S. embassy spokesperson in Phnom Penh, told VOA Khmer in an email on Tuesday. The proposed canal has alarmed neighboring Vietnam because…

Previously deferred debt repayments to China are coming due in Kyrgyzstan, raising public concerns in the Central Asian country about deepening financial dependence on its powerful eastern neighbor. The country’s total debt accumulated since independence in 1991 is estimated at about $6.2 billion, or 45% of GDP. That is below the debt ratios of some developed countries but problematic in a largely agrarian economy that has been struggling since a change of government in 2020. About $1.7 billion of that is owed to the Export and Import Bank of China,…

taipei, taiwan —  A Vietnamese delegation’s visit to China last week has underscored increasingly close economic ties between the territorial rivals, which analysts say is posing a challenge to the dominance of South Korean investment in Vietnam. Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue led the high-level delegation from April 7 to 12 and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hue proposed the two countries create a new push for trade development and “connect Vietnam to China’s large development strategies.” He also met with the heads of many large Chinese…