Asian Legal Review

Louise “Liza” Araneta-Marcos, 62, has been at the receiving end of unexpected gifts ever since her husband, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr filed his presidential bid in October.“People are giving me outfits and shoes and we haven’t even started,” said the daughter-in-law of former First Lady Imelda Marcos who became world famous for her shoe fetish. The term “Imeldific” was even coined after her to describe someone “ostentatiously extravagant, sometimes to the point of vulgarity.”In 2018, the…

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China has announced a number of initiatives to boost investment in infrastructure, including a US$450 million infrastructure asset-backed security to be issued during financial year 2022-23.

A scandal-plagued Malaysian political coalition won a sweeping victory in local polls in Johor state on Saturday, giving it a boost ahead of expected national elections due next year.The Barisan Nasional (BN) took 40 of 56 seats, claiming a two-thirds majority in a contest that saw 239 candidates vying for control of the southern state’s legislature.The powerful bloc has been riding strong since the fall of a reformist government led by Mahathir Mohamad in early 2020, which collapsed due to…

More women are needed in top leadership and policymaking positions across the Asia-Pacific to help combat the threat posed by climate change, according to a senior United Nations representative for the region.Asia’s women often work on the front line managing and mitigating climate change impacts, said Sarah Knibbs, UN Women’s deputy regional director and officer-in-charge for Asia and the Pacific. But the region still has few female leaders in positions of power, such as the heads of energy…

In the first six weeks of 2022, more than 40,000 Russians poured into Thailand – tourists craving a sun-kissed shore far away from the harsh winter of home.They were beckoned back to the beaches of Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya by a welcoming nation whose deflated economy was desperate for an economic lift, having felt the sting of billions of lost tourist dollars amid the pandemic.But then Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, and hopes of a quick tourist recovery for Thailand…

Singapore plans to simplify Covid-19 restrictions that have built up in the city state since the start of the pandemic and intends to further ease entry rules for vaccinated travellers, with the worst of the current Omicron wave seen to be over.The island, which boasts a 95 per cent vaccination rate among the eligible population, will look to pay more attention to hospitalisations rather than daily cases to guide its strategy, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said at a briefing on Friday.Further…

Employee ownership trusts (EOTs) are increasingly popular ownership models that can deliver benefits to an organisation’s shareholders and its employees.

Considerable investment will be needed if Japan is to meet its ambitious wind power generation targets, a renewables expert has said.

Exactly two years ago, on March 11 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 a global pandemic.This was two months after there were reports of a mystery virus infecting people in Wuhan, the most populous city in central China. Early reports said the virus didn’t appear to be readily spread by humans.Well, the Sars-CoV-2 virus could indeed be spread by humans. It quickly travelled around the world, and has so far infected more than 450 million people.Covid-19, the disease it…

Singapore is seeking to attract higher-calibre foreign workers under a new points-based visa system, as part of the government’s broader push to boost local employment while positioning itself as a global city, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said.“What we are trying to do is to be able to differentiate the high talent, the really super skill sets talent that can come to our country to work to complement our existing workforce,” Tan said on Thursday.The city state last week announced one of the…