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

As year 2020 comes to an end, we trace the trend of Malaysian involvement and usage of arbitration based on published statistics of these major arbitral institutions. 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

In UDA Land Sdn Bhd v Puncak Sepakat Sdn Bhd, the High Court was required to determine whether an award should be set aside because the sole arbitrator wrongly concluded that it had no jurisdiction to determine a counterclaim and insolvency set-off raised in the arbitration. Read more

In Sunway Creative Stones Sdn Bhd v Syarikat Pembenaan Yeoh Tiong Lay Sdn Bhd and Anor, the Malaysian High Court refused to set aside an arbitral award because the applicant had not challenged the arbitrator’s jurisdiction and conduct when the issues arose during the arbitral proceedings. 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