Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Malaysia's Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2024 (Act A1727), gazetted 17 October 2024, enters its third and final commencement phase on 1 June 2025 per commencement order P.U.(B) 522/2024. Phase 3 activates sections 6 and 9 of the amending Act, which impose mandatory Data Protection Officer (DPO) appointment thresholds, a 72-hour breach-notification duty to the Commissioner, and a statutory data-portability right, bringing Malaysia's PDPA broadly into alignment with GDPR and the ASEAN Model AI Governance Framework.

On 22 December 2024 the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam, under General Secretary Tô Lâm, issued Resolution 57-NQ/TW designating science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation as Vietnam's "top strategic breakthrough" through 2030 with vision to 2045. The resolution targets ≥50% digital-economy share of GDP, top-30 global ranking in innovation and digital transformation, and at least 10 globally-competitive Vietnamese digital-technology enterprises by 2030. It identifies data, AI, blockchain, and IoT as priority bottlenecks and operates as the parent/umbrella authority under which all subsequent Government, National Assembly, Prime-Ministerial and Ministerial tech-industrial instruments are formulated. Operational implementation runs through Government Resolution 03/NQ-CP of 9 January 2025 (action programme).

FinCEN published a final rule (FR Doc 2024-23920, 89 FR 83782, effective on publication October 18, 2024) clarifying the public-utility exemption to the Corporate Transparency Act's beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rule. The amendment to 31 CFR 1010.380(c)(2)(xv) corrects a drafting cross-reference so the exemption explicitly covers any regulated public utility under 26 U.S.C. 7701(a)(33)(A) *or* (D) that provides telecommunications services, electrical power, natural gas, or water and sewer services within the United States. The change codifies FinCEN's June 10, 2024 telecommunications-provider guidance and is effective immediately upon publication; it neither expands nor restricts the underlying universe of reporting companies beyond aligning the rule text with the CTA statute.

On 24 September 2024 the European Commission issued its first-ever final decision under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2022/2560), conditionally approving (Case FS.100011) the acquisition of PPF Telecom Group B.V. by Emirates Telecommunications Group Company PJSC (e&, majority-owned by the Emirates Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi). The Commission found that e& received prohibited foreign subsidies — principally an unlimited state guarantee via the EIA and preferential financing instruments — that risked post-transaction competitive distortion within the EU's five-country PPF footprint (Czechia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia; 10+ million subscribers). Conditions imposed require e& to remove the unlimited state guarantee, prohibit financing PPF's EU operations from EIA or e& group treasury, and mandate notification of future EU acquisitions above the FSR thresholds. The non-confidential version of the decision was published 4 April 2025.

On 6 September 2024 China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) jointly issued Order No. 23, the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access (2024 Edition), effective 1 November 2024. The 2024 list reduces nationwide restrictions from 31 to 29 entries, removing the last two manufacturing- sector restrictions (publication printing must be Chinese-controlled; investment in TCM-decoction steaming/roasting/calcination processes and confidential-formula proprietary Chinese-medicine production prohibited). Restrictions remain in services (telecommunications value-added, healthcare, education) and in 21 prohibited categories (news publishing, postal monopoly, fishing, gene therapy, tobacco). The 2021 edition is repealed on the same date.

Cabinet Resolution No. 97 of 2024 is the implementing regulation of UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 43 of 2021 on Commodities Subject to Non-Proliferation. It operationalises the UAE's horizontal dual-use export-control regime, empowering the Executive Office for Control & Non-Proliferation (EOCN) to designate prohibited and restricted goods on the National Control List and to issue export/transit/re-export permits within 20 working days. The Control List covers nuclear materials, chemicals and precursors, electronics, telecommunications, sensors and lasers, navigation systems, avionics, marine and aerospace equipment, propulsion systems, and "national controlled commodities" (armoured vehicles, autonomous equipment). This is the regulatory architecture under which post-G42 advanced AI-chip outbound flows from the UAE are licensed.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued an interim final rule (FR Doc. 2024-15810) amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) so that certain "releases" of technology and software during "standards-related activities" are no longer subject to the EAR. The rule revises 15 CFR §734.10 and consolidates the patchwork of prior carve-outs (May 2019 Huawei 5G TGL, June 2020 IFR, September 2022 Entity-List-wide IFR) into a single activity-based exclusion. The change enables US firms to participate in international standards bodies (IEEE, 3GPP, ITU, ISO, IEC) alongside Entity-Listed parties — most consequentially Huawei — without licence exposure. Comments were due September 16, 2024.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), enacted as Division H of P.L. 118-50 (21st Century Peace through Strength Act), prohibits app stores and internet hosting services from distributing, maintaining, or updating "foreign adversary controlled applications" — defined explicitly to include ByteDance Ltd and its subsidiaries (TikTok). ByteDance was given 270 days from enactment (until January 19, 2025) to execute a "qualified divestiture" — selling TikTok to an owner with no operational relationship with a foreign adversary — or face a nationwide distribution ban. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law's constitutionality in TikTok, Inc. v. Garland (January 17, 2025), rejecting First Amendment challenges and affirming the national-security rationale grounded in data-collection concerns.

BIS amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to clarify controls on radiation hardened integrated circuits (rad-hard ICs) and equipment — including computer and telecommunications devices — that incorporate them. The rule affirms the availability of License Exception GOV for rad-hard ICs acquired pursuant to an official written request or directive from the Department of Defense or Department of Energy. It also expands License Exception GOV to cover microelectronics exports, reexports, and in-country transfers made under U.S. Government contracts that explicitly provide for such transactions, removing export-control obstacles for official government business. Published at 89 FR 18353–59 (FR Doc 2024-05267), effective on publication date.

Bureau of Industry and Security final rule (89 FR 14403, Doc 2024-03674) adding two entities under seven entries to the Entity List, effective February 27, 2024. Sandvine Incorporated, a Canadian deep packet inspection vendor, is listed across six destinations (Canada, India, Japan, Malaysia, Sweden, UAE) because it supplies DPI technology to the Government of Egypt where it is used for mass web-monitoring and censorship. Chengdu Beizhan Electronics Co., Ltd. is listed under China for acquiring and attempting to acquire U.S.-origin items on behalf of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), a PLA-affiliated institution already on the Entity List. All items subject to the EAR require a license with a presumption-of-denial review policy for both entities. The rule also revises entries for two existing Chinese entities and removes one UAE entry.

Commission Recommendation (EU) 2024/779 of 26 February 2024, published in the Official Journal on 8 March 2024, establishes the EU's first dedicated policy framework for the security and resilience of submarine cable infrastructure. It creates an informal Submarine Cable Infrastructure Expert Group of Member State authorities chaired by the Commission with ENISA participation, introduces the Cable Projects of European Interest (CPEI) designation mechanism for priority Union funding, and mandates a consolidated Union-wide risk and vulnerability assessment culminating in a Cable Security Toolbox of mitigating measures. Scope covers cables, landing stations, terrestrial tail connections, repair centres, and cable-laying vessel capacity. The recommendation is non-binding under TFEU Article 292 but constitutes the foundational soft-law framework that the later 2025 Cable Security Action Plan (JOIN(2025) 9) operationalises with binding CPEI lists and €347M CEF Digital funding.

On 21 February 2024, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed Presidential Decree DP-37 approving the 2024 State Program for the Implementation of the "Uzbekistan-2030" Strategy under the slogan "Year of Support for Youth and Business". The decree converts the parent Uzbekistan-2030 doctrine (DP-158 of 11 September 2023) into binding annual execution targets covering SOE privatisation and IPO programmes (Navoi MMC, Almalyk MMC, Uzbekistan National Investment Fund), industrial localisation, sectoral investment lines, "green economy" and water-management benchmarks, and youth-business support measures. DP-37 functions as the master annual operationalisation instrument for Uzbekistan's 2024 industrial and investment policy stack, anchoring the downstream subsoil recodification (LRU-987, Oct 2024) and critical-minerals national programme (March 2025).

The Significant Investments Review Act 2024 (Act No. 1 of 2024) is Singapore's first horizontal, cross-sector statutory FDI screening regime. The Bill was passed by Parliament on 9 January 2024, assented to by the President on 6 February 2024 and gazetted on 14 February 2024; the Act commenced on 28 March 2024 under the SIRA 2024 (Commencement) Notification (S 228/2024), together with the Significant Investments Review Regulations 2024 (S 229/2024). The Act creates an "ownership-and-control" layer over a limited number of "designated entities" the Minister for Trade and Industry has identified as critical to Singapore's national-security interests, plus an "any entity" call-in power exercisable against firms that have acted against Singapore's national-security interests, regardless of whether they are designated. Acquisitions of ≥5% require post-closing notification within 7 days; acquisitions of ≥12% / ≥25% / ≥50% and cessations of ≥50% / ≥75% controller status require prior ministerial approval. Administered by the Office of Significant Investments Review (OSIR) within MTI. SIRA is the Singaporean structural peer of US CFIUS, EU Regulation 2019/452, the German AWG §§55-62, the French Décret 2014-479, the UK NSI Act 2021, the Netherlands Wet Vifo, and the Canada ICA national-security review.