On July 12, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar issued Notification 1/2019, which announced that foreign individuals and foreign entities will be permitted to invest in up to 35% of the shares in Myanmar companies listed on the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX).

On June 13, 2019, Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) published a new edition of the Guidelines for Examining Patent and Petty Patent Applications, with the aim of harmonizing and updating the examination of patent and petty patent applications in Thailand. The new edition of the Guidelines will replace the previous version published in 2012.

On January 28, 2019, Thailand, as a member state of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), became the 49th contracting party to accede to theO Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print-Disabled, which became legally binding on Thailand on April 28, 2019. In order to comply, Thailand enacted an amendment to the Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994) which became effective on March 11, 2019, in the form of Copyright Act (No. 4) B.E. 2561 (2018).

Crowdfunding in Thailand has generally been regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and this covered a narrow scope of crowdfunding activities, including offering newly-issued shares via “electronic systems or networks.” Recently, the SEC issued new regulations expanding the scope of permitted crowdfunding activities to include other parts of equity crowdfunding. SEC Notification Tor Jor.

Introduction

One of the problems international businesses face in doing business in Myanmar is dispute resolution. The Myanmar court system is opaque and extremely slow, and local litigators charge surprisingly high fees. Arbitration is an obvious solution to this problem, and following the Myanmar Arbitration Law (2016) (AL) almost all commercial contracts of substantial value now contain arbitration clauses, usually for arbitration abroad-most commonly at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).

On May 5, 2019, amendments to Thailand’s Labour Protection Act (LPA) introduced changes to a variety of employer obligations to enhance employee protection, including statutory severance pay, maternity leave, and paid necessary business leave, among others. It also set out key amendments to the law governing workplace relocation, and employers should be sure to familiarize themselves with these new provisions due to their potential impact on business operational decisions in future.