Upgrades and Glitches
Issue 27 — Key Developments Across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand
Editor’s Note
by Mattia Peroni, Lead Editor - Mekong Belt Desk
As governments in the Mekong region push forward with new technologies and ambitions, this week’s reporting comes as a reminder that resilience doesn’t come from speed or immediate action alone, especially if reform is slowed by shadows trailing behind. Cambodia is gearing up for a 5G rollout that promises speed, efficiency, and a digital edge—if the infrastructure delivers as advertised. But in Laos, the same expanding digital landscape is exposing women and girls to rising online abuse, outpacing the country’s legal and institutional protections. Across the border, Myanmar’s headline-grabbing “crackdown” on scam hubs looks less like justice and more like political theatre—an attempt to appease China and polish credentials ahead of planned elections, while the real architects of cybercrime slip away. And in Thailand, historic floods have laid bare the cost of treating climate disasters as one-off emergencies, draining budgets that were never designed to withstand storms that now come every year.
Cambodia 🇰🇭
Cambodia’s 4G Coverage Reaches 95% Ahead of 5G Transition
by Malai Yatt, in Phnom Penh
After implementing 4G services nationwide—now covering 95% of the country—Cambodia will roll out 5G starting in January 2026. The announcement marks a significant step in the country’s digital and technological advancement, aligning with broader trends in global digitalization.
Speaking at the Digital Governance Forum on 5 December, Chea Vandeth, Minister of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC), stated that over the past five years, the ministry has carried out major reforms in the telecommunications sector through regulatory strengthening and expanded infrastructure investment.
“The ministry has worked hard to conduct an in-depth study on methods for launching 5th-generation mobile services, or 5G services, starting from January 2026,” he noted. “It has gathered input from all telecommunications operators and worked closely with each operator to ensure that 5G services can be successfully deployed in our country.”
Speaking to The ASEAN Frontier on Friday, Seun Sam, a policy analyst at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said Cambodia welcomed the announcement, “even if it’s a bit late compared to some countries in the region,” adding that service quality remains a key challenge. “Recently, even 4G only has better coverage in some areas, while others still face slow speeds,” he said.
He emphasized that for the 5G rollout to succeed, performance must be the priority—ensuring the internet is fast and functional, rather than simply offering the 5G label. He also stressed that MPTC should work closely with all service providers and aim for a nationwide deployment, which would greatly benefit users in their daily lives and work.
According to a Knight Frank report released in December 2024, Cambodia currently has an estimated 7MW of data-center capacity, expected to increase with the MPTC’s recently announced USD 30 million project by 2025. Cambodia has around 20 million internet-connected devices, suggesting roughly 10 million internet users—about 60 percent of the population.
The MPTC said 5G will bring transformative benefits to Cambodia, offering data speeds up to ten times faster than 4G and near real-time responsiveness (low latency), significantly improving downloads and streaming.
“This superior connectivity enables the massive connection of devices necessary for developing smart cities, digital agriculture, and smart factories, while also facilitating real-time public services like emergency response,” the ministry stated.
The rollout is expected to boost efficiency in production, transport, fintech, and e-commerce, while enhancing public services such as e-health and e-government. By creating new jobs and attracting investment, MPTC added, 5G will strengthen Cambodia’s economic resilience and regional competitiveness.
In conclusion, Cambodia is preparing for a January 2026 5G launch, with performance, cooperation among providers, and nationwide coverage essential to ensuring the technology delivers its full economic and social benefits.
Malai is a reporter at Kiripost, where she has worked for over two years, driven by a strong commitment to amplifying the voices of underserved communities. Her reporting focuses on economic and foreign affairs.
Lao PDR 🇱🇦
Laos Must Confront Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in ASEAN’s Digital Era
by Thipphavanh Virakhom, in Vientiane
Laos is undergoing a rapid digital transformation, with internet penetration reaching around 66% of the population and more than 5 million active users in early 2024. While this expansion increases access to education, markets, and public services, it has also introduced new forms of harm, including technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV). Such violence includes online harassment, non-consensual distribution of intimate images, cyberstalking, threats, impersonation, and digitally enabled coercion. As in many countries experiencing rapid connectivity growth, Laos still lacks comprehensive legal and institutional frameworks to address these emerging risks.
Gender-based violence (GBV) in Laos is already widespread offline. National data show that one in three Lao women has experienced physical, emotional, or sexual violence, and more than 15% have experienced intimate partner violence. In 2024 alone, counselling and shelter services supported over 300 survivors. Frontline organizations stress that these cases represent only a fraction of actual incidents, as many survivors do not come forward due to stigma, fear, or limited access to support. These vulnerabilities deepen as more women and girls interact with digital platforms.
Initial national dialogues on TFGBV, led by UNFPA and Lao government partners in 2023, highlighted growing concern over online harassment, image-based abuse, and digital coercion affecting women, LGBTQ+ youth, and students. Although systematic TFGBV data for Laos remains limited, global patterns are instructive: international studies show that nearly 40% of women have experienced online abuse and 85% have witnessed it. Given Laos’ rapidly expanding digital ecosystem, similar harms are likely increasing domestically—though underreported due to social stigma, limited digital literacy, and the absence of formal reporting channels.
The 2025 global 16 Days of Activism campaign, launched in Laos under the theme “Unite to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls,” reflects growing national recognition of TFGBV. Lao officials have noted that cultural stigma around “digital shame” remains a major barrier preventing survivors from seeking help, particularly in rural provinces.
Despite rising awareness, the legal framework remains weak. Existing regulations under the Law on Prevention and Combating Cybercrime (2015) and related decrees mainly address fraud, defamation, and unauthorized digital access. They do not explicitly define or criminalize TFGBV. Law enforcement agencies also face challenges in digital-forensic capacity, cross-border evidence collection, and cooperation with online platforms—issues common across lower-connectivity ASEAN states.
Regionally, ASEAN is developing frameworks on cybersecurity, AI governance, and data protection, such as the ASEAN Digital Masterplan 2025. However, TFGBV has yet to be substantively integrated into these agendas, creating gaps that allow perpetrators to exploit cross-border digital systems.
To address these deficiencies, Laos would benefit from legal recognition of TFGBV, capacity-building for police and courts on digital evidence, integrating online-safety education into schools and communities, structured cooperation with technology companies, and regional coordination under ASEAN to harmonize definitions and responses.
As Laos advances its vision for inclusive digital development, ensuring that women and girls can participate safely online is essential. TFGBV is not only a technological issue but a core human-rights challenge that will shape trust, equality, and the country’s broader digital-governance agenda.
Thipphavanh holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs. She is a governance and development professional specialising in rule of law, access to justice, and gender equality in Lao PDR. Her work focuses on strengthening justice sector institutions, advancing people-centred governance, and promoting gender-responsive systems. With extensive experience in project coordination, monitoring and evaluation, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications, she has collaborated closely with national institutions and international partners to support inclusive and sustainable development.
Myanmar 🇲🇲
Myanmar’s Junta Stages Performative Raids on Cyber‑Scam Hubs Amid Rising Foreign Pressure
by Mozart
Myanmar’s military junta is staging a visible crackdown on cross-border scam and gambling centers along the Thai border, under pressure from China and neighboring governments. Yet critics question whether this is genuine law enforcement—or a reputational clean-up ahead of the junta’s planned elections.
Myanmar authorities have launched large-scale raids on online scamming and gambling hubs near the Thai border, detaining thousands of workers and seizing equipment as regional pressure intensifies on cross-border crime networks that have flourished since the 2021 coup. Since October, security forces have destroyed major cyber-fraud and gambling compounds such as KK Park, Shwe Kokko, and sites around Myawaddy in Karen State. Officials report detaining more than 2,000 people and confiscating around 10,000 mobile phones, laptops, and Starlink terminals used to run online scams and betting platforms.
State media and the Ministry of Information have framed the operations as a “national duty” to eradicate online scamming and gambling, insisting that these hubs target victims across Asia and damage Myanmar’s international reputation.
The crackdown follows sustained pressure from China, which has pushed Myanmar and other Mekong governments to dismantle scam networks exploiting Chinese citizens. Beijing has emphasized joint meetings, cross-border policing, and the repatriation of foreign nationals throughout 2024 and 2025. Analysts note, however, that the Myanmar military—particularly Border Guard Force (BGF) units such as the faction led by Saw Chit Thu—long tolerated and in some cases directly benefited from these networks. As a result, many observers argue that the sudden campaign aims to ease diplomatic pressure and also bolster the junta’s law-and-order credentials ahead of its planned multi-phase elections.
The United States and its allies have also highlighted growing concern over Myanmar-based fraud operations that target victims across North America and Asia. Washington has imposed sanctions and law-enforcement measures against individuals and entities linked to regional scam syndicates. However, video footage of the operations shows the destruction of largely empty buildings, raising doubts about the effectiveness of the crackdown. Analysts argue that the campaign appears performative, targeting mostly low-level workers while key backers were likely informed in advance and avoided arrest. Rights groups similarly describe the effort as selective enforcement designed to show “visible progress” to foreign governments without dismantling the networks’ core structures.
Cyber-crime centers in Myanmar have become major contributors to the global online scamming and betting industry, staffed largely by foreign nationals trafficked or lured from neighboring countries. These hubs operate at the intersection of political, economic, and armed-group interests, siphoning billions of dollars from victims while enriching local security forces and allied power brokers. Despite the junta’s high-profile actions under international pressure, the networks continue to evolve, enabled by weak governance, corruption, and long-standing ties between operators and military-aligned factions.
Failure to address cyber-crime zones in Myanmar—as well as in Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines—risks undermining not only regional digital security and economic stability, but also global cyber safety and financial integrity. Without sustained reforms and accountability, the current crackdown is unlikely to meaningfully disrupt the entrenched criminal ecosystems along Myanmar’s border.
Mozart is a research assistant at Mosaic Myanmar and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Parami University. His academic and professional interests span community development, minority issues, and social impact research. He has held roles including service-learning intern, student mentor, and operations coordinator for local initiatives, supporting project management, monitoring and evaluation, and education programs in Myanmar.
Thailand 🇹🇭
Thailand’s Budget Is Not Ready for Future Natural Disasters
by Satid Sootipunya, in Bangkok
After severe flooding in Hat Yai and other towns in southern Thailand, waters began to recede on November 27, but many households and local businesses remain deeply affected by the deluge. Some businesses have been forced to shut down due to a lack of capital to resume operations, while numerous households still see no light at the end of the tunnel as they struggle to put their homes back in order, a situation further worsened by financial stress.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health announced on Thursday that the total death toll has reached 145 people. Meanwhile, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation under the Ministry of Interior reported that, as of December 5, 102,445 households and 282,651 people have been affected by the floods.
On December 4, the Thai government officially announced two main financial relief packages: THB 2 million in compensation for families of those who died in Hat Yai, which has been designated an official disaster area, and a THB 9,000 cash handout for all affected households.
For victims living outside the official disaster zone—including Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Trang, Phatthalung, Satun, Pattani, Narathiwat, and Yala—the guidelines for compensation are still under cabinet discussion. According to Siripong Angkasakulkiat, spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, the government plans to allocate THB 1 million from the central budget of the 2026 fiscal year and another THB 1 million from the Prime Minister’s Office Public Disaster Relief Fund. Meanwhile, the THB 9,000 household cash handout will be drawn from the government’s central emergency budget.
Harnnarong Yaowalert, president of the Thailand Foundation for Integrated Water Management, told Thai media outlet Krungthepturakij that the government is now spending a significant portion of the national fiscal budget—mostly from the central budget—on relief packages to mitigate the impact of the flooding. He emphasized that while climate-driven emergencies are unpredictable and demand urgent responses, the Thai government has not yet factored climate change risks into its budgeting process, leaving the country without sufficient fiscal space to handle recurring natural disasters.
Ultimately, he warned that if this pattern of extreme weather events continues, Thailand will lack the budgetary capacity to implement effective long-term policies to address structural problems and improve people’s living conditions. Instead, taxpayer money will continue to be directed primarily toward emergency relief measures, crowding out investments in prevention, adaptation, and sustainable development.
Satid is a multimedia economic journalist and news anchor who covers macroeconomic trends, Thailand’s fiscal policy, and key regional developments for Bangkok Biz. A Journalism graduate from Thammasat University, he has reported on major issues such as the US–China trade tensions, the Myanmar crisis, and global corporate stories, drawing on prior newsroom experience at The Momentum, the Bangkok Post, AFP, and Varasarn Press. His work blends economic analysis, foreign affairs, and digital storytelling, with a strong focus on making complex financial and political topics accessible to Thai audiences.
Editorial Deadline 5/12/2025 11:59 PM (UTC +8)
