Insolvency Law Reform

Conferences and Symposium

An integral component of the two RETAs was the conduct of conferences and symposiums where participants discussed the local studies and country reports, and exchanged views on the further development of strategies of bankruptcy law reform and bankruptcy practice in the region.

• Singapore Conference March 2003
• Manila Conference October 2002
• Symposium January 1999

Singapore Conference
(17-18 March 2003)

The Singapore Conference was held to continue the progress made at the first Manila Conference in 2002. Like the Manila Conference, it was limited to selected invitees from Indonesia, Korea, Philippines and Thailand. These countries were selected because they either had sufficiently developed national systems that contemplated regional insolvency issues, or were in the midst of systemic insolvency law reform.

The draft Country Reports for each of the areas of reform were discussed and reviewed during the Conference.

Likewise, brief summaries of the following topics were given at the conference:

• Thailand - Possible Reforms To Insolvency Law
• Thailand - Harmonization Of Commercial Laws In Asia
• The December 2002 OECD Conference On Asian Insolvency Issues
• UNCITRAL Projects - Insolvency And Secured Transactions
• Progress Of New Insolvency Law In The Philippines
• Progress Of New Insolvency Law In Korea
• World Bank Insolvency Initiatives
• INSOL International - Report On The People's Republic Of China Conference And Other Developments
• Current Status Of The RETA
• Background To And Information Concerning The Bi-Lateral Cross-Border Insolvency Arrangements Between Singapore And Malaysia
• Australian Proposals For Possible Adoption Of The UNCITRAL Model Law
• Use Of Treaties For Law Reform

Top

Manila Conference
(30 September-1 October 2002)

ADB's General Counsel, Mr. Gerald A Sumida, opened the conference (Opening Remarks [ PDF: 249kb | 3 pages ]).

The conference was limited to approximately 40 invitees from Indonesia, Korea, Philippines and Thailand for the following reasons

• The conference was aimed largely at senior government officials/policy makers.
• A small forum would encourage a high degree of inter-active participation amongst the attendees.
• A small forum might better suit the essential purposes of the conference, namely, to discuss the broad issues affecting each subject area of the RETA and, in particular, to discover issues upon which there was contention and diversity and to understand the basis and reasons for that contention and diversity

Three parallel sessions were conducted by Messrs Richard Fisher, Ron Harmer and Martin Brown on cross-border insolvency, the intersection between secured transactions and insolvency and informal work-outs.

View the Manila Conference Report [ PDF: 107kb | 24 pages ]

Top

Symposium
(25-26 January and 26-27 October 1999)

ADB President Tadao Chino opened the symposium held at ADB Headquarters, Manila on 25-26 January 1999. President Chino spoke of the increasing emphasis that ADB places on the provision of assistance that will help, establish, or develop an enabling legal, policy and institutional environment that would be conducive to economic development.

On 26-27 October 1999, ADB conducted a Joint Symposium on Insolvency and Secured Transactions (RETA No. 5773 [ PDF: 320kb | 9 pages ]) to consider the points of intersection between the two important areas of law. The Joint Symposium was the first major effort by ADB to approach secured transactions and bankruptcy law as complementary legal regimes that should be considered together.