The 15th edition of the ALB SE Asia Law Awards turned out to be as much of a resounding success as previous years, showcasing the work of the finest lawyers and law firms in South East Asia.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, India’s largest firm by headcount, has established an educational programme targetting legal and business professionals in companies.

Imagine a situation where tens of thousands of companies build their own compliance programs. They build and implement them based on ‘best practices’ of what they under- stand other companies are doing, what they hear at conferences and what they think is best based on their experience.

Government of Republic of Indonesia (GoI) through the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has recently issued state sharia securities (Surat Berharga Syariah Negara–SBSN) targeted for Indonesian individual investors, in the form of Sukuk savings (Sukuk Tabungan) series sT-003 (“ST-003”) on February 2019 and Government Retail Sukuk (Sukuk Negara Ritel) series sR-011 (“SR-011”) on March 2019. Pursuant to MoF Regulation no. 125 year 2018 on the Issuance of Retail sBsn, sT-003 and sR-011 are projects and assets based sukuk with underlying projects and assets as listed in 2019 state Budget and list of state-Owned Assets (Barang Milik Negara–BMN), hence aim to finance various government infrastructure as well as non-infrastructure projects. With the concept of asset-based investment, investing in sukuk is relatively low-risk since the GoI owns the underlying assets; meanwhile, from the government side, sukuk can be deemed as alternative financing from traditional reliance to state Budget to finance public infrastructure projects. Example of infrastructure projects financed by the issuance of sT-003 and sR-011 include Trans sulawesi railway (crossing Makassar- Pare-Pare) in south sulawesi, Petuk Kupang Bridge in East nusa Tenggara, and Regional Road of Tayan-Tanjung-sanggau in West Kalimantan.

The International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Professionals (INSOL), a global network of national associations for accountants and lawyers, who specialize in turnaround and insolvency, is opening its first international office in Singapore.

Dentons Rodyk & Davidson has successfully represented the Singapore- registered PNG Sustainable Development Program (PNGSDP) in its long-running legal battle against Papua New Guinea, which was represented by WongPartnership.

The Hong Kong Government and the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China have signed an agreement under which courts in each jurisdiction will now recognise and enforce interim measures in support of institutional arbitration seated in the other.

Hong Kong is presently developing a new online dispute resolution (ODR) platform – called Electronic Business Related Arbitration and Mediation, or eBRAM – which aims to take much of the cost and hassle out of the arbitration process.

The ALB Malaysia Law Awards 2019, held on March 28 at the Mandarin Oriental in Kuala Lumpur, once again showcased the best lawyers, firms, in-house teams and work in Malaysia’s legal industry.

Last month, on Valentine’s Day, thirteen couples in Japan took a different approach to the typical romantic dinner out. To mark the date, they filed lawsuits.