On May 10, 2022, the Asian Business Law Institute and the International Insolvency Institute jointly released the Guide on the Treatment of Insolvent Micro and Small Enterprises in Asia (“Guide”) as part of their Asian Principles of Business Restructuring Project.

The Guide identifies five key principles for more immediate adoption by jurisdictions as building blocks of a well-functioning micro and small enterprise insolvency framework, and six aspirational principles that should ideally be considered and adopted by jurisdictions over the longer term to provide micro and small enterprises with a more comprehensive legal and institutional environment to deal with financial distress. This tiered approach, unique among all current literature, is designed by considering the extreme diversity of institutional development of Asian jurisdictions and with the hope of assisting policymakers better digest the recommendations made in this Guide.

The Guide was produced with input from experts from Asia-pacific jurisdictions including Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as those from Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States. International organisations like INSOL International, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and the World Bank were also involved in consultation.

Our partner Vicheka Lay provided input from the Cambodia perspective for the Guide.

The full Guide can be read at https://payhip.com/b/bkW12