While Malaysia has been taking active steps to liberalise foreign direct investment (FDI) restrictions in recent years, restrictions in a number of business sectors remain. For example, the banking, telecommunications, construction, engineering, health, education, and energy sectors, among others, are still subject to varying degrees of FDI restrictions. Read more

In recent years Vietnam has generated intense investor interest, attracting a ten-year high in 2019 of US$38 billion foreign direct investment, representing a year on year increase of 7.2%. The Vietnamese Government is targeting 5% growth for 2020, calling foreign investment a crucial factor. Read more

Bank Negara Malaysia has recently announced this month that it will soon be finalising a Climate Change and Principle-based Taxonomy which aims to provide a common language to categorise economic activities based on their impact on climate change and facilitate financial flows to activities that support the transition to a lower carbon economy. Read more

Myanmar has been continuing its push to attract foreign investment. Rapid developments in the legal environment has taken place to facilitate such investments, including the passing of the Myanmar Investment Laws, and the revamped Myanmar Companies Law, all in the last five years. Read more

On 25 August 2020, the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Bill 2020 (Bill) was passed by the Dewan Rakyat. The Bill seeks to provide temporary measures to mitigate the financial and social impact of Covid-19. Read more

Even the most sophisticated contracts could not predict the uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic wrought on construction and infrastructure projects. These contracts even more so do not account for the “new normal” for when we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis. Read more

While Malaysia’s economic growth is anticipated to remain moderately slow for the remainder of 2020, the mix of tax incentives provided by the Malaysian government, modest valuations of targets, low cost of funds and the lower Ringgit will provide value for companies looking to make investments into the Malaysian market. Read more

As residual claimants in an insolvency, shareholders’ motivations tend to be diametrically opposed to those of creditors when a company nears insolvency. For instance, shareholders will receive the full upside of risking the company’s remaining assets in attempting to return the company to profitability; with downside risks often being externalised to the company’s creditors. Read more