The newly amended Law on Insurance was published in the Electronic Official Gazette on March 30, 2020, and has been in effect since April 15. Existing insurers are allowed three years to comply with the new requirements, as provided in the amended law. As for insurance and reinsurance companies not yet established in Laos, new insurance business licenses remain suspended under a 2016 notification.

The Thai judiciary has issued multiple measures and guidelines for case management during the COVID-19 outbreak. The latest came in May 2020, when the president of the Supreme Court issued further details and guidance on the handling of cases during the COVID-19 outbreak in an official announcement titled Measures for Case Management according to the Declaration of an Emergency Situation between March 26, 2020, and April 30, 2020, in all areas of the Kingdom of Thailand.

On May 19, 2020, the Thai Cabinet approved the implementation of a royal decree providing a one-year exemption from certain provisions under the Personal Data Protection Act 2019 (PDPA).The royal decree, once published in the Royal Gazette, will be effective from May 27, 2020, until May 31, 2021. Based on the Cabinet’s announcement, the decree is expected to provide exemption from the following chapters and provisions of the PDPA:

In Vietnam, golf is gaining in popularity, and the country is also becoming a popular destination for golfing vacationers. The country has about 35 courses in operation and many more in the pipeline. Most of the courses are found on the outskirts of major cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, or near resort areas such as Da Nang, Nha Trang, Vung Tau and Dalat.

For a long time, the patentability in Vietnam of use inventions, especially new indications of a known substance in the pharmaceutical area, was a subject of controversy. An amended version of Circular No. 01/2007/TT-BKHCN (Circular 1) that took effect on January 15, 2018, seemed to settle this debate.

On March 24, 2020, the government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 35/2020/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Competition Law (Decree 35). Decree 35 took effect on May 15, 2020, and provides much-needed elaboration on various ambiguous issues under the 2018 Competition Law, which has been in effect since July 1, 2019. Notably, it clarifies the conditions triggering the restrictions on anti-competitive agreements and economic concentration (e.g., M&A transactions).1. Definition of Relevant Market