Since its establishment in July 2015 AEC News Today has consistently broken news. In June, 2020 we attracted more than 730,000 unique visitors, some 786,462 total visits from people (not bots) looking at more than 2.1 million pages. Our Alexa ranking hit an all time high of 76,181.
Our goal of becoming the eyes, ears, and voice of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) has been achieved. More than 80 per cent of our readers come from within Asean.
Our mobile app with emergency messaging alert and text to speech is one of the best news apps available, while our daily morning news roundups provides a historical record of the daily news for each country in the region, and the region itself.
However, continued difficulty in obtaining skilled local staff, the almost impossible task of getting Cambodian government spokespeople to answer their phone, emails, or instant messages, let alone respond to questions, together with the bureaucratic challenges for small businesses enterprises such as ours in dealing with certain Cambodian government departments — Cambodia doesn’t rank 144 out of 190 countries for ease of doing business for no reason (this Facebook post gives a brief insight into business processes in Cambodia), have seen the publishers of AEC News Today decide not to seek the renewal of their publishing licence when it expires on July 26 and to cease all business activities in Cambodia .
The AEC News Today website will continue to receive basic maintenance so that our stories remain accessible.
Thank you to our millions of readers over the past five years for your support and trust, along our dedicated staffJusthine De Guzman Uy, and Mark Henry Uy, and in particular without who none of this would have been possible.
The coming months are going be extremely challenging for the citizens of many countries. In March we forecast the grim period ahead. Our predictions have largely become fact.
We wish all of our readers well, and urge you to prepare for the dark period ahead.
John Le Fevre
Managing editor / Thailand & GMS editor

Latest posts by Editor (see all)
- Thank you, goodbye, good luck – July 26, 2020
- Stay up to date with the AEC News Today mobile app – March 11, 2017
- Social Media Win in #GoThailandGoAsean Media Fam Trip – April 23, 2016
Thank you for your work over the last five years.
Good luck to you all.
Sad but completely understandable
There are daily updates of news highlights on the following page too for anyone interested in keeping up-to-date on Myanmar.
https://www.facebook.com/echo.infoforyou.1
This is very sad, for your daily reporting has been an excellent source of information throughout.
Sad, yes .. but inevitable. Cambodia may not have responded to you, but there are other countries whose spokespeople have been, shall we less, less than truthful, and certainly inconsistent.
I’ve always wondered how you could continue to report so professionally.
I certainly wish all of your staff well in their careers. It would be good of you to post where people are working so we can continue to enjoy their work.
Sorry to hear John, but all the best
Will miss the insightful stories and wrap up of the region’s news
Thank you.
It is very sad for Cambodia.
You are missed terribly.