Breakfast Talk Seminar: Expanding your business in Laos and ASEAN, 8th October 2019

The European Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lao PDR / EuroCham Laos and DFDL will be organising this upcoming seminar “Expanding your business in Laos and ASEAN”on the 8th of October 2019 at the Crowne Plaza Vientiane.

At this event, our expert speakers Jack Sheehan and Jonathan Blaine will examine how to expand your business in Laos and other ASEAN countries and will discuss the tax incentives available, the common structures for doing business and a comparison of advantages and disadvantages for foreign investors in each country.

Some of the topics covered will include:

• Is 100% foreign ownership allowed in other ASEAN countries? If not, what are the limitations or alternatives?


• Can a foreign investor buy, own or lease real estate in other ASEAN countries?


• Are there any restrictions or requirements on hiring foreign or local employees?


• Incentives offered to attract companies with manufacturing operations, service providers and other types of enterprises and which countries offer the most favorable types.


• How do employee costs, overheads and other expenses compare between the Lao PDR and other countries?


• Does it make practical sense to use an existing Lao company to invest in other countries?


• What are the common structures that can be adopted to expand across the region?


• Tax efficient planning to expand in ASEAN while avoiding any common pitfalls.

Jack is a Partner and the Head of the Regional Tax Practice. He specializes in providing advice on structuring inbound and outbound investments in Asia, international tax planning, mergers and acquisitions, and general tax advisory. Jack also assists in advocacy for tax policy at a Government level in South East Asia. Jack was nominated as Asia Tax Leader 2018 by International Tax Review. Jack holds a Postgraduate Degree in Tax Law from the Law School at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Jack is featured regularly as a speaker and writer on tax law in Asia. Jack has spoken at number of leading Universities including the Law School at Queen Mary’s University London, the Law School at Chulalongkorn University Thailand, Energy Law School at Dundee University UK, and leading tax bodies such as the International Fiscal Association (IFA) and the International Bureau for Fiscal Documentation (IBFD)

Jonathan has over 20 years of experience in the Asia-Pacific, specializing in cross-border corporate and personal investment and tax planning with a particular focus on US, Thailand and Japanese investments. He typically advises international businesses, high net worth individuals, trustees, insurers and other financial institutions. Jonathan has supported numerous individual clients with US tax amnesty and Streamline filings and is a recognized expert in Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), while also providing several well-known multinational corporate clients with international investment planning and structuring. He is a licensed California attorney and has been a licensed USCPA (Hawaii) for more than 20 years. He is a frequent lecturer at several universities and speaker at seminars globally.