Creation of a Canadian infrastructure bank On October 20, 2016, the Advisory Council on Economic Growth published its report entitled "Unleashing Productivity Through Infrastructure". One of the report's recommendations is to create a Canadian Infrastructure Development Bank whose objective would be to deliver projects with an aggregate value of more than $200 billion over 10 years, while at the same time minimizing the use of government budgets ...
A federal appeals court has rejected two challenges to the environmental review of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro's) planned subway expansion in Downtown Los Angeles. The "Regional Connector" project, approved in 2012, will create a three-station, underground link through Downtown that will allow passengers to travel from points on the Metro Gold Line to the Blue and Expo lines without having to transfer trains ...
The October issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article entitled “Mining Developments”. The article was contributed by SyCipLaw partner Aaron Roi B. Riturban ...
The October 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) includes a regional update article entitled “New Implementing Rules for Philippine Data Privacy Act”, contributed by SyCipLaw partner Rose Marie M. King-Dominguez. The article enumerated and discussed the implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012. It is located on page 11. Read the full ALB October 2016 issue on the ALB website ...
Trade mark law may be contained in statutes, but judges are the ones who interpret the statutes. Judges are also the ones who eventually decide whether one trade mark is confusingly similar to another. It is these factors that make the “Question the Trade Mark Judges” event that recently took place at University College London so fascinating for anyone interested in trade marks ...
The July/August issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article entitled “Promoting Foreign Investment”. The article was contributed by SyCipLaw partner Carina C. Laforteza and associate Lito Paolo T. Martin II. The article discussed the enactment of Republic Act No. 10881, which was set to make the Philippine sa more attractive destination for foreign investors in the financing industry ...
Over the summer, several European blue chips, certain Fortune 500s and major Asian corporates accelerated their entry strategy for Iran. Some are investing in Iran pursuant to the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act 2002 (“FIPPA”), which, amongst other things, provides a sovereign guarantee from the Iranian government ...
The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has issued its first merger clearance under the implementing rules and regulations of the Philippine Competition Act. The clearance was for the proposed acquisition by Sanofi of the CHC business of Boehringer Ingelham. SyCipLaw acted as Philippine antitrust counsel to Sanofi. Download the Client Alert for more information on the first merger clearance of PCC under the Philippine Competition Act ...
Africa Tax in Brief Ethiopia: Treaty and amending protocol with the Netherlands enter into force The Ethiopia-Netherlands Income Tax Treaty, 2012 and the exchange of notes, signed on 10 August 2012, entered into force on 1 September 2016, and the amending protocol to the treaty, signed on 18 August 2014, will enter into force on 30 September 2016. The exchange of notes generally applies from 1 September 2016 ...
The September 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Edition included a regional update article entitled “Anti-Corruption Laws in the Philippines”, contributed by SyCipLaw partner Ronald Mark C. Lleno, and Associate Rhey David S. Daway. The article discussed examples of prohibited corrupt practices under Philippine law. It is located on page 16. Access the full ALB September 2016 issue online ...
The contemporary business world has become fundamentally tied in with the progress of globalisation, and for anyone involved in it, that is no secret. Anybody would be hard pressed to find an industry that can exist and sustain itself in a purely national context, without – at least in some regard – relying on either a piece of legislation or a practice trend that is related to whatever kind of international functioning ...
The Second Eastern Economic Forum was held on 2nd and 3rd December in Vladivostok. The participants presented various investment projects ready for implementation. On 3rd September Maxim Alekseev, ALRUD Law Firm Senior Partner, participated in Russia-ASEAN session. Its primary topic was discussion of the declaration on main areas of cooperation between Russia and ASEAN adopted on Russia-ASEAN summit held in Sochi on 19-20 May, 2016 ...
TAXATION TAX ON IMMOVABLE PROPERTY PAYMENT FOR 2016 Notifications No. 12723 dated 5 August 2016 & No. 13466 dated 16 August 2016 Per Notification No. 12723, the General Department of Taxation (“GDT”) informs owners of immovable property (“Property”) which is subject to the Immovable Property Tax (“IPT”) to pay the IPT to the tax authorities by 30 September 2016. Late payment of IPT is subject to penalty ...
Corruption is a scourge which transcends frontiers. In response to this situation, Canada has chosen to pass the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (hereinafter referred to as the "CFPOA") in 1998, then reinforced the regime thereof more recently. The difficulty with this Act lies in the fact that the offences must have been committed abroad. International cooperation thus remains essential to its application. The difficulties related to the transnational nature of corruption are real ...
From August 30th of 2016, the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, commonly known as the “Apostille Convention”, and which changes the legalization process of foreign public documents, will enter into force in Chile. This treaty was signed on October 5th, 1961, and on December 2015 Chile completed the procedures to ratify it. In order to enforce this convention in Chile, Law No ...
Over the past few months the issue of offshore jurisdictions and the role they play in the global economy has come under extreme scrutiny, especially from onshore governments seeking to increase tax revenues. The recent Panama Papers Leak has only served to fuel the flame and has resulted in more people who know very little or nothing at all about offshore jurisdictions calling for their demise ...
African Union: Import tax introduced At its 27th summit recently held in Rwanda, the African Union (“AU”) decided to implement an import tax of 0.2% to be charged on all imports of goods (excluding basic necessities) in each member state. It is expected that EUR1-billion will be collected through this tax, making the AU financially autonomous. Morocco, the only African country currently not a member of the AU, is in the process of being reintegrated into the AU ...
The most recent example of a fashion designer losing the right to use his/her name came about this week. Karen Millen lost her court battle to challenge the agreement reached after the sale of her business to Baugur for £95m in 2004 which stated that she could not use her name in business in the future ...
ANGOLA: Securities Code Regulations enacted The Securities Code Regulation (Regulation No. 6/16) (the "Regulation") was approved by the Council of Administration of the Capital Market Commission and gazetted on 7 June 2016. The Regulation contains the organisation rules and administrative requirements for open companies and other issuers of securities admitted to trading in regulated markets ...
While the initial rush of foreign investors to Myanmar slowed down in 2015, likely due to the November elections, 2016 is predicted to be a year of rapid growth. The almost complete transition of power to Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), formerly in opposition, represents an impressive step forward to stability for the nation, and to opening up to the world ...
Brexit – what does it involve and when could it happen? In a referendum, held in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2016, a majority of voters decided in favor of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) leaving the European Union (EU) (this exit from the EU by the UK is the so-called Brexit). The referendum is not binding ...
On 30 June 2016, Vietnam’s National Assembly voted to delay implementation of Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13 dated 27 November 2015 (the “Penal Code”), which was to take effect on 1 July 2016. It is not clear at this time when the Penal Code will be implemented and we understand it will undergo significant revisions prior to being approved for implementation by the National Assembly ...
Recently, public and political commotion has arisen in cases where the remuneration of managing directors increased, while the employees received no or a marginal increase in salary. This public debate was the reason for the government to propose an expansion of powers of the work's council on this subject ...
After the conclusion of the public consultations conducted by the Philippine Competition Commission ("PCC") on May 24, 2016 and the lapse of the period for the submission of comments and suggested revisions to the draft implementing rules and regulations issued on May 10, 2016, the PCC has published the final implementing rules and regulations (the "Rules") of the Philippine Competition Act ("PCA") last June 3, 2016. The Rules took effect on June 18, 2016 ...
