Pork is an important source of protein in Vietnam. It represents more than 72.6 percent of meat produced in the country and provides livelihoods on small farms for more than four million people. The country’s improving standards of living and lifestyle changes has driven the increase in demand for meat with pork production reaching 29 million tonnes in 2016.
The great powers of the world share one thing in common: a desire for progress and the proper execution of that particular ideal. For China, a global behemoth in its own right, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is its own vision, which has now manifested into a political, social, and economic reality.At its most basic, this gargantuan plan is an expression of China’s desire to build on trade relations with both, Asia and Europe.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has set an ambitious target of securing 23 percent of its primary energy from renewable sources by 2025 as energy demand in the region is expected to grow by 50 percent.
With electricity demand in Vietnam growing 12 percent annually, the Vietnamese government has set a goal to generate 265 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity by 2020 and 570 billion kWh of electricity by 2030. This is to meet the surging demand for power resulting from rapid urbanisation and industrialisation in the country.Currently, the country produces more than 170 billion kWh of electricity from fossil energy sources, such as coal and gas – which are speedily being exhausted.
Along with most Southeast Asian countries, Cambodia’s electricity consumption over the past decade has skyrocketed. In a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), electricity consumption in Cambodia has been growing rapidly, averaging 20 percent growth per annum since 2010. This rate continues to accelerate as average incomes in the nation rise on the whole.
A Pan-Asian super grid connecting electrical transmission networks across the continent providing clean and renewable power to more than half the world’s population may be a fantasy for now.
Hundreds still remain unaccounted for in the thick mud and flood waters of Attapeu and Champasak, two provinces in southern Lao PDR where the failure of an auxiliary dam sent a torrent of water gushing down on 13 villages downstream. The result was utter devastation as whole villages were submerged in a sea of sludge leaving survivors to clamber onto available rooftops and tree branches.
Rio Tuba, located in the Municipality of Bataraza on the island of Palawan in the Philippines is a predominantly mountainous region with roads riddled with potholes making it almost inaccessible especially during bad weather conditions. This makes it difficult for households in the area to be connected to the national grid.
The Mekong is Southeast Asia’s lifeblood, pumping life into some of the region’s biggest cities. It is the seventh longest river in Asia and the 12th longest in the world. The 4,350-kilometre river runs from the Tibetan Plateau through China’s Yunnan Province, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Mekong is important to the region for a number of reasons. First, it acts as an important fishery resource for the countries it flows through.
In the past decade Asia has emerged as a booming market for nuclear energy. According to the World Nuclear Association, over half of the world’s nuclear plants under construction are in Asia. Most of them however are in China as they account for nearly 40 percent while the rest of Asia makes up 60 percent of nuclear plants under construction.
As crude prices hover around US$75 a barrel, power producers are feeling the pinch and passing on the cost to customers. Malaysia’s utility company, Tenaga Nasional (TNB) imposed a 1.35 sen (US$0.0135) per kWh surcharge to offset its fuel and generation costs this month.
Many are unaware of this, but Southeast Asia is home to 25 percent of the world’s geothermal generation capacity. Most, if not all of this geothermal capacity is located in the Philippines and Indonesia who are ranked as the second and third largest producers of geothermal energy in the world. Geothermal energy is produced by heat from the earth and is considered a form of renewable energy. It’s also considerably safer than most other energy sources.
