On 13-14 July, Covington’s Peter Camesasca and Sophie Bertin participated in panels discussing developments in Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) and Competition enforcement and compliance at the annual Competition Law Asia-Pacific Conference.
Foreign Direct Investment Regimes
On the first day of the conference, Covington partner Peter Camesasca moderated a group of diverse panellists on recent developments in FDI regulation regimes across the APAC region. Prof. Nell Lixia Zhou (Competition Law Center, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing) presented on the new FDI regime implemented in China, focusing particularly on: (1) the pre-entry national treatment of foreign investment and the Negative List; and (2) the investment promotion and protection aspect of the Foreign Investment Law. Carlo D’Andrea (EU Chamber of Commerce in China) shared insights from the Chamber’s most recent Business Confidence Survey of European companies active in China. Following on from the discussion on China, Ted Burgell (Business Council of Australia) reflected on recent changes to the more mature Australian FDI regime, including the new requirement for approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (“FIRB”) in the case of proposed investments that raise national security concerns, regardless of the investment’s value, along with the FIRB’s powers to review investments and impose penalties. Arunan Kumaran (APEC Competition Policy and Law Group) discussed the varying approaches to FDI in the broader APAC region and what measures are needed to facilitate FDI in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and trade wars in the region. Finally, Peter Camesasca rounded off the session by sharing perspectives on European FDI regimes and recent developments in light of the pandemic.
In-House Perspective: Addressing Challenges in Enforcement and Ensuring Compliance
The following day, Sophie Bertin participated in an insightful discussion with in-house counsels Welly Tantono (Secretlab) and Aidil Tupari (Petronas), on antitrust enforcement and compliance in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. The panellists discussed challenges they have faced in operating a compliance programme virtually via digital means over the past year, with regards to delivery of training, on-boarding and integration of new employees, risk management, and embedding compliance culture from afar.
Related resources
Covington regularly publishes content covering developments in the FDI and Competition Law. Covington blog readers may be interested in the videos below, in which Peter Camesasca, Horst Henschen and Katherine Kingsbury discuss recent developments in the regulation of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) in Europe.
Foreign Direct Investment Regulation—German Developments
Foreign Direct Investment Regulation—UK Developments
EU Regulation on Foreign Subsidies