Organised by the Singapore China Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), RHTLaw Taylor Wessing together with Taylor Wessing sponsored the annual Singapore Investment Seminars in China 2015 event. Various local governmental authorities in China partnered the event with the purpose of introducing Singapore and the regional markets to the audience and also promoting the region as a business hub. There were four seminars that took place and they were held in Suzhou, Kunming, Jinan and Shanghai in April, June, August and November respectively. RHTLaw Taylor Wessing’s Partner Amanda Chen and Legal Manager Ian Li presented on foreign investment laws and regulations in Singapore as well as shared their experiences on cross-border transactions within the region. The attendees comprised large sized state owned entities and private companies which have existing investments or are interested in investing in Singapore and the region.

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing’s Managing Partner Tan Chong Huat shared his views in this week’s topic in the Business Times’ weekly column, Views from the Top. This article was first published in The Business Times on 9 November 2015. Better health care for all NOV 9, 2015 5:50 AM THIS WEEK'S TOPIC: What are the hallmarks of a good healthcare system? How else, if at all, might Singapore's MediShield Life scheme be tweaked to ensure healthcare costs remain affordable for an ageing population? Tan Chong Huat Managing Partner RHT Law Taylor Wessing  LLP A GOOD healthcare system delivers quality health services to all the people. Although Singapore's healthcare expenditure is lower than other developed countries', our system was ranked sixth by the World Health Organisation in 2000 and ranked the most efficient by Bloomberg in 2014. The challenge ahead is finding ways to keep healthcare costs affordable as our population ages. In our insurance practice's view, there are three ways to do this. Firstly, we note that a majority of employers provide healthcare benefits which overlap with MediShield Life. The integration of the two types of plans will save unnecessary  costs. Secondly, the inculcation of a healthy lifestyle is important as prevention is better (and cheaper) as opposed to a cure. Finally and perhaps the most difficult, managing the healthcare providers' costs in terms of unnecessary treatment, costly tests and expensive medicine. Inflated claims have always been the bane of the insurance industry.

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing was invited to participate in a global study conducted by Harvard Business School, the UN Global Compact and the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Sustainable Development Task Force. Managing Partner Tan Chong Huat, Partner Ch’ng Li-Ling, Senior Legal Counsel Dr Tan Lay Hong and General Counsel Alvin Chen provided valuable input in drafting the legal memo that was submitted pro bono for the study. This is a significant project which also involved the participation of our ASEAN Plus Group law firms, Hanafiah Ponggawa & Partners (Indonesia) and Azmi & Associates (Malaysia). Professor Robert G. Eccles and Tim Youmans of Harvard Business School led the study by gathering legal perspectives from law firms globally on the fiduciary duties of Directors with respect to protecting shareholder and corporate value. The purpose of this campaign is to urge companies to have their board of directors issue an annual “Statement of Significant Audiences and Materiality”, with a key goal of supporting integrated reporting and the move towards a more sustainable society. The memos are available for viewing on the ABA Sustainability Development Task Force website.

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing’s Deputy Managing Partner Azman Jaafar was featured in a Channel NewsAsia article titled “Partner community to expand learning opportunities for students: Ng Chee Meng”. The article highlighted the need for schools and the community to strengthen partnerships to create more learning opportunities for students. As chairperson of Tanjong Katong Girls’ School student advisory committee, Azman arranged for students to undergo internships at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing  where he is Deputy Managing Partner. He did this with the intention of enabling these students to be more reflective about justice and how it affected them. To value-add to the school, he commented that it is necessary to allow the school to leverage on the private sector resources in cultivating values. The full article can be found in the 24 October 2015 edition of the “Singapore” section of Channel NewsAsia’s website.