In recent years in Vietnam, new policies and changes in the law have led to many situations where foreign companies are no longer allowed to operate as representative offices (ROs), or find that it is no longer optimal to do so. As a result, many companies are converting or considering the conversion of their ROs into full subsidiaries or “foreign-invested enterprises” (FIEs). This has been an especially hot topic in the pharmaceutical sector after changes brought on in 2017 by new legislation.   

The Myanmar Ministry of Commerce has set the timeline for foreign-owned and joint venture companies importing or exporting specific categories of goods to apply for retail and wholesale services registration. These changes are outlined in Notification 23/2019 from Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce (MoC) supporting last year’s opening-up of retail and wholesale to foreign companies (on which see our recent article here).

On May 14, 2019, Thailand’s Cabinet approved the exemption of three categories of service business from Foreign Business License (FBL) requirements. The exemptions, which are expected to be enacted soon by Ministry of Commerce regulations, will permit foreigners to freely engage in the previously restricted activities. The categories of service business to be exempted are:

The Factory Act (No. 2) B.E. 2562 (2019) and Factory Act (No. 3) B.E. 2562 (2019) were published in Thailand’s Government Gazette  on April 30, 2019. These will amend the Factory Act B.E. 2535 (1992). The Factory Act (No. 2) will become effective 180 days after publication—that is, on October 27, 2019—while The Factory Act (No. 3) became effective on May 1, 2019.