Trading on Cambodia's stock exchange has begun for the first time after a state-run company completed its initial public offering.

Myanmar will set up a securities exchange with the help of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and Daiwa Securities Group as the resource-rich nation hunts for foreign investors after decades of isolation.

The Bhutan government is looking at liberalizing the wholesale business as a means to streamline the process of how goods are brought into the country and retailed to consumers.

Every table and much of the floor at Co-Operative Bank in Myanmar's commercial capital is stacked with thick bricks of the local kyat currency. Money counting machines clatter. Workers carry sacks of cash slung over their shoulders.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved a US$427 million loan for Sri Lanka, hoping to shore up government coffers that have been ravaged by a massive trade deficit.

Myanmar's currency will be largely unshackled from government controls next week in a significant step toward reforming the impoverished country's economy, state media reported Wednesday.

Now that Myanmar is opening to the outside world, good luck getting a hotel room.

Public anger is rising in Myanmar over a planned deep-sea port set to displace thousands of villagers, as recent political reforms galvanize grassroots opposition to industrial megaprojects.

Retail giants Puma, Gap and H&M have urged Cambodia to fully probe the recent shooting and wounding of protesting garment workers as the sole suspect, a local governor, remained at large Monday.

The Cambodian government said Wednesday the decision by a Hindu trust to build a full-scale replica in India of the Angkor Wat temple was a shameful act.