Showing 1 - 10 of 34
Early education transforms lives
Oped, Justin van Fleet & Pia Rebello Britto, Published on 09/12/2025
» The leaders' declaration adopted at the end of the recent G20 summit in South Africa reaffirmed the group's commitment to tackling some of the world's most pressing challenges, from inequality and long-running conflicts to AI and climate change. It also marked a historic milestone: for the first time, the G20 identified education as one of its top global priorities.
Floods 'a recurring nightmare'
Oped, George G van der Meulen & Chamniern Vorratnchaiphan, Published on 16/09/2025
» Thailand has faced floods for more than a century. Some years are worse than others, but the pattern is consistent. The catastrophic 2011 floods remain the most painful reminder: according to the World Bank, they caused US$46.5 billion (1.5 trillion baht) in economic losses, displaced 13 million people, and claimed approximately 800 lives. Much of the country's industrial heartland was submerged for months, severely impacting global supply chains.
The scramble for the world's critical minerals
Oped, Rabah Arezki & Rick van der Ploeg, Published on 07/08/2025
» The world's superpowers have developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for the critical minerals that are essential to the ongoing energy and digital transitions, including rare-earth metals (for semiconductors), cobalt (for batteries), and uranium (for nuclear reactors). The International Energy Agency forecasts that demand for these minerals will more than quadruple by 2040 for use in clean-energy technologies alone. But, in their race to control these vital resources, China, Europe, and the United States risk causing serious harm to the countries that possess them.
Mobile operators need competition
News, Peter Cramton & Erik Bohlin, Published on 31/03/2025
» Thailand's mobile communications market has two service providers with an equal share of customers. In economic terms, it is a symmetric duopoly. This is the worst market structure because the two can easily discipline each other to limit competition: "I'll match any lower price you set; I'll limit 5G and 6G investment if you do." This reciprocity limits competition in price and quality, which helps the carriers' shareholders but harms consumers, especially in the long run, through slower innovation in a critical infrastructure industry.
The way to lose an entire decade
Oped, Erik Berglöf and Nahom Ghebrihiwet, Published on 19/03/2025
» The 2020s are shaping up to be a lost decade, at best, for economic growth. This will be particularly bad for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) in the short term, but it will leave us all worse off, not least by undermining the global fight against climate change. The parallels with the 1930s -- when the world also faced a major economic shock, intensifying protectionism, growing nationalism, and the weakening of multilateralism -- make the situation appear all the more ominous. Then, like now, geopolitics was king.
Prosperity needs a healthy planet
News, Axel van Trotsenburg, Published on 30/10/2024
» Progress on poverty reduction has slowed almost to a standstill in recent years. With nearly 700 million people still living on less than US$2.15 (73 baht) per day, the world is far from the goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. At the current pace, it will take at least three decades to reach this target and more than a century to lift everyone above the poverty line of $6.85 per day used for upper-middle-income countries. Today, 44% of the global population falls below this threshold.
Progress lies beyond pre-coup order
News, Laetitia van den Assum and Kobsak Chutikul, Published on 07/10/2024
» From Tuesday until Friday, Laos will host a summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders. The event will also bring Asean partners from around the world to the capital Vientiane. Its agenda will be weighed down by complex and potentially divisive issues. One of them is the situation in Myanmar, which has been on the agenda since April 2021.
Asean should back a new Myanmar
Oped, Laetitia van den Assum and Kobsak Chutikul, Published on 24/01/2024
» On Jan 28-29, Asean's foreign ministers will meet in historic Luang Prabang, until 1975 the capital of Laos, their host country. It will be their first meeting since Laos took over Asean's rotating chairmanship from Indonesia at the beginning of the year.
This victory is for my best friend, cancer patient JT
Sports, Erik van Rooyen, Published on 08/11/2023
» To be honest, I don't really know where to start. I was quite numb after that eagle putt went in on 18 [to win the the World Wide Technology Championship in Mexico on Sunday] and you imagine yourself being full of euphoria and being ecstatic, and I was just numb.
Promise, peril of decarbonisation
News, Erik Berglöf, Published on 09/10/2023
» To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, it is crucial to decarbonise the entire world. But pressuring emerging economies to reach net-zero emissions too quickly could lead to an explosion of dollar-denominated debt and financial volatility across the developing world. Integrating these countries into the decarbonisation effort requires a more nuanced strategy.