RHTLaw Taylor Wessing is committed to the development of our Associates. Taylor Wessing organises an International Associates Academy once every year. One of the objectives of the Academy is to allow associates from the various Taylor Wessing offices to meet and build a strong working relationship with their counterparts. This year’s Academy will be held in Hamburg, Germany on 5 and 6 October 2012. We are pleased to announce that an Associate from our Banking & Finance and Real Estate practice will be sent for this event. The programme for this year will include key topics such as: Working internationally and the impact of culture; Technical training: understanding the legal differences between jurisdictions and being commercially aware; Building the Bond and operating as a commercial lawyer; Developing trusted business advisor skills.

In Issue 1 of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing’s Indonesia Practice Bulletin, our Indonesia Practice team shared key insights on Indonesia’s new mining regulations. The last three years saw a significant increase in the export of mineral ores from Indonesia following the enactment of the new Mining Law (Law 4/2009) in 2009.  The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (“ESDM”) reported that exports of nickel ore increased by 800%, iron ore by 700%, and bauxite by 500%.  This occurred despite the Mining Law mandating that miners must process and refine the ore within the country. This mandatory requirement will take effect on 12 January 2014.   As yet, mining companies have not put together a comprehensive plan to build domestic refinery facilities to meet the requirements of the new law.  It was against this backdrop that the Government of Indonesia recently issued a series of regulations that were intended to accelerate the implementation by mining companies of their processing and refining obligations. Please click on the link below to view the bulletin: Indonesia Practice Bulletin Issue No. 01 As part of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing’s value added services, our Indonesia Practice team will be sharing key legal insights about Indonesia through our regular bulletin. To subscribe, please send an email to newsletters@rhtlawtaylorwessing.com.

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing congratulates RHT Corporate Advisory on her appointment as the corporate secretarial agent by Hartawan Holdings Ltd. (“Hartawan”), a Catalist Listed Company, with effect from 24 August 2012. Hartawan was founded in 1998, its property leasing and management business comprises of five strategically located properties in Singapore as at June 2011. The Group leases and manages properties which are used for a variety of purposes including a hotel, offices and retail. The Group currently owns one cargo vessel as at June 2011. Hartawan had on 14 April 2011 entered into a conditional share subscription agreement with 10 investors to issue 234,375,000 new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company at $0.08 for each share aggregating S$18.75 million. These new shares were fully allotted and issued on 16 June 2011. With the injection of new cash, the Group is strategically positioned to embark on future expansion whenever the right opportunities emerge. The Group is actively seeking oil and gas and/or mining and resources industries as possible target for expansion. Hartawan had entered into a sale and purchase agreement for the sale of its shares in Whitehouse Holdings Private Limited on 5 September 2011 for a consideration of S$2.625 million, after taking into consideration various commercial factors which included costs of maintenance and repair, and the cost of reinstatements upon return of the property to the landlord. Hartawan had entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement on 29 October 2011 with 2 vendors for the proposed acquisition by the Company of the entire issued and paid-up capital of Wilton Resources Holdings Pte. Ltd for a consideration of S$300 million.  More details and information can be found in the Company’s announcements made on 31 October 2011, 4 November 2011, 17 April 2012 and 2 August 2012. RHTLaw Taylor Wessing’s Corporate and Securities Partner, Mr Chew Kok Liang is the named joint Company Secretary for Hartawan.

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing congratulates RHT Corporate Advisory on her appointment as the corporate secretarial agent by Smartflex Holdings Ltd. ("Smartflex"), a Catalist Listed Company, with effect from 15 June 2012. Smartflex is a comprehensive provider of IC module assembly and testing services for contact and dual interface smart cards, which are mainly used in the banking and finance, pay TV, telecommunications and transportation industries.  Valued added services which the Company provides also include the loading of software or customer specific data into smart card IC modules. Smartflex’s manufacturing facility in Singapore at approximately 3,077.20 sq m, houses equipment with wafer mapping and dicing, die attach, wire bonding, encapsulation and OS loading and testing and inspection capabilities.  With full range of services, the Company are able to provide complete and innovative manufacturing solutions to their customers from Southeast Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, India PRC, South America and the United States.  It also maintains close ties with customers which include MNCs such as Oberthur Technologies, Eastcom Peace Smart Card and STMicroelectronics, through provision of a full range of smart card module related testing and assembly services. Despite the uncertain state of the global economy, Eurosmart expects global shipment of smart cards to continue to grow in 2012, forecasting a 13% year-on-year increase to 6.92 billion units. This will be driven by a few factors including strong growth in demand for dual cards in both contact and contactless formats for the retail banking sector and in the telecommunications sector of developing markets like China and India. The Company has recently announced joint venture with SANsystems Sarl, French engineering firm, which will raise the Group’s capabilities in the design and manufacturing of new products for smart card applications. RHTLaw Taylor Wessing’s Corporate and Securities Partner, Mr Chew Kok Liang and Mr Nathaniel C V are the named Company Secretaries for Smartflex.