On September 6, 2019, Thailand’s economic ministers endorsed a new investment promotion package recommended by the Board of Investment (BOI) to enhance the country’s ability to attract foreign investment and encourage foreign investors seeking to relocate operations in order to escape the impact of the ongoing US-China trade war. The “Thailand Plus” campaign covers four main investment-related areas:

On June 14, 2019, the National Assembly of Vietnam passed Law No. 42/2019/QH14 amending the Law on Insurance Business and the Law on Intellectual Property, which will come into effect on November 1, 2019, except for certain provisions amending the Law on Intellectual Property.

The State Bank of Vietnam on June 26, 2019, issued Circular No. 06/2019/TT-NHNN on foreign exchange control of foreign direct investment activities in Vietnam (Circular 06). On September 6, 2019, Circular 06 replaced Circular No. 19/2014/TT-NHNN on the same matter, while also amending Circular No. 05/2014/TT-NHNN on opening and using foreign indirect investment capital accounts and Circular 16/2014/TT-NHNN on the use of foreign currency and Vietnamese dong accounts for residents and non-residents. Below are some notable points of Circular 06.

Bloomberg Tax, a research portal featuring information on tax systems around the world, has published the Country Guide for Myanmar , authored by legal practitioners from Tilleke & Gibbins’ office in Yangon.The guide is part of their repository of expert analyses of tax systems worldwide, which features in-depth information on the ins and outs of tax systems around the globe. This guide to taxes in Myanmar includes the following:

Bloomberg Tax, a research portal featuring information on tax systems around the world, has published the Guide to Indirect Taxation in Myanmar , authored by legal practitioners from Tilleke & Gibbins’ office in Yangon.The guide is part of Bloomberg’s repository of expert analyses of tax systems worldwide, which features in-depth information on the ins and outs of tax systems around the globe, including guides to navigating VAT/GST tax systems. In Myanmar, indirect taxation takes the form of commercial tax, which the guide breaks down as follows:

The 2019 edition of Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law Life Sciences Global Guide  has been released, with its Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property and Competition Law in Cambodia chapter written by practitioners from Tilleke & Gibbins’ Phnom Penh office.The guide is a Q&A-style overview of the regulatory frameworks for the life sciences industries across jurisdictions worldwide. This chapter on pharmaceutical IP and competition law in Cambodia addresses the following issues in the country’s legal landscape for life sciences:

On February 19, 2019, by amending the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522, Thailand caught the cannabis industry by surprise and became the first Asia-Pacific country to legalize medicinal cannabis. While hemp had been approved for use in industry since 2018 (see here), the amendment of the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522, providing for a Thai FDA registration pathway for medicinal cannabis, was largely unexpected.