On March 31, 2020, the Prime Minister of Vietnam issued Directive No. 16/CT-TTg, which sets out Vietnam’s strongest measures yet for preventing and controlling the COVID-19 virus.Notably, Directive 16 mandates strict social distancing throughout the country for 15 days, from April 1 through April 15. In the wording of the directive, “families should be distanced from families, villages should be distanced from villages … provinces should be distanced from provinces.”Practical Implications

All offices of the Intellectual Property Office of Vietnam, including the head office in Hanoi and the representative offices in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City (the “IP Office”), are currently closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 situation. The IP Office issued a notice on March 31, 2020, to address issues related to the closure, with the following main contents:

Delay in Social Security ContributionsOn March 20, 2020, Myanmar’s Social Security Board announced that it will allow employers to make social security payments quarterly, instead of monthly, due to the hardship businesses are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This will provide a degree of relief for employers, although the measures do not yet go as far as reducing the required social security contributions.Workplace Requirements

On March 30, 2020, the Lao Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) issued Notification No. 0446/DIP Pursuant to Prime Minister’s Order No.06/PM—the latter being a general order imposing a lockdown in Laos to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

Due to the complicated and unpredictable developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese government has taken various measures, which have grown more stringent over time, to combat the spread of the disease. Due in part to these timely measures, as of Monday, March 30, Vietnam had reported just over 200 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and no fatalities—encouraging numbers for a country of its size.

Our team at Tilleke & Gibbins is pleased to share with our clients this guest column, providing insight into the impact of the coronavirus pandemic for creditors and debtors, written by Associate Professor Dr. Munin Pongsapan, Dean of the Faculty of Law, at Thammasat University.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications Department of Civil Aviation issued a notification yesterday stating that all international commercial passenger flights will be denied landing permission in all Myanmar airports with effect from 11:59 p.m. today, March 30, 2020, until 11:59 p.m. on April 13, 2020. This does not apply to cargo flights, relief flights, or medical evacuation flights.

On March 29, 2020, the Prime Minister of Laos issued Order No. 06/PM on the Reinforcement of Measures for the Containment, Prevention, and Full Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.