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This paper looks into social media as a public sphere, where people individually or collectively express, discuss, share and deliberate on information, ideas, views and opinions. The concept of the public sphere as advanced by the German intellectual Jürgen Habermas refers to a utopia in which people can address public issues without the interference of state or capital. In his own words, Habermas said, "Les hommes, private gentlemen or die Privatleute made up the public not just in the sense that power and prestige of public office were held in suspense; economic dependencies also in principle had no influence. Laws of the market were suspended as were laws of the state." For Habermas, the mass media, and notably the press, were a public sphere in appearance only.4 They were more or less influenced, interfered with and restricted by the state and their owners. While the concept of the public sphere has been modified and applied in different ways to explain social movements and the mass media, this paper puts it into the Thai context to examine the interplay between the government of Prime Minister Prayut and media users, in a situation where the former wants to restrict if not fully control that sphere, and where the latter try to expand it for their own reasons.

The transition to e-government and digital means of data collection, storage, analysis and use provides the Government of Myanmar with a unique opportunity to rethink ways of working, and develop a local data ecosystem that generates quality data and strengthens the work of government. Over the past five years, The Asia Foundation has been working with a range of government agencies across Myanmar to improve the collection and use of data, and develop and implement digital systems to support their work. The Foundation's work helps individual agencies to meet their routine responsibilities, but also enables multiple departments to work together to plan and solve local problems collectively and strategically. The Foundation is publishing Developing Myanmar's Local Data Ecosystem to share its experience and learning. We hope that it provides insights of use to all stakeholders in Myanmar's governance system.

Singapore, with its trusted data and analytics hub ambitions, may have lessons to learn from the slew of recent moves by the US. Federal agencies made some of the country's largest telecommunications and technology companies accountable for mismanagement of US citizens' personal data.

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act of 1957 (referred to as MMDR Act) regulates the mining sector in India, including specifying the rules for the allocation of mining leases. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015 (referred to as MMDR-2015 Act) introduced, amongst other changes, the system of auctions to be used by state governments when granting mining leases and prospecting licence-cum-mining leases (also known as a composite licence). The purpose of changing the method of allocation of the resources was to remove the discretion that state governments previously had, and move towards a fair, objective, and transparent system. This Discussion Note seeks to highlight some of the peculiarities that have come out of the 70 mineral blocks that have been auctioned since MMDR-2015 has come into effect.

The greatly increased reliance on technology for work, education, business, and social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic has opened up opportunities for cyber criminals. It is highly probable that post-COVID-19, this reliance will lead to a hyperconnected world.

This Paper identifies certain policy issues in the existing regulatory infrastructure of the Philippines which may prevent digital platforms in the Philippines from innovating and participating in the global digital economy. In brief, these policy issues relate to the incoherence between the national innovation strategy of the government and the mishmash of regulations that digital platforms are subjected to. In particular, this relates to investment regulations, regulations on mass media, retail, advertising, logistics, telecommunications, and education. Such landscape has led to a regulatory environment that is unable to provide certainty as to the legality of the activities of Philippine-based digital platforms. There is a plethora of constitutional, statutory, and policy support for innovation, e-commerce, digitization, and entrepreneurship in the Philippines. However, there is a disconnect between these policies and the environment created by the actual implementation of the regulations. After the Introduction, Part II of this Paper will be a brief survey of the relevant laws and regulations relevant to digital platforms. This will focus on the areas of innovation policy, general electronic contracting, payments, consumer protection, data protection, cybercrime, access to funding, and intellectual property. Part III will then discuss the gaps in the laws and regulations vis a vis digital platforms, and Part IV will present how these gaps impact digital platforms. Finally, Part V proposes areas for policy consideration and regulatory review that aims to contribute to the shaping of a coherent and viable regulatory policy for Philippine digital platforms.

The rise of digital platforms necessarily entails the processing of personal data between platforms and their users. More than enabling the delivery of services by the platforms, data shared by users has increasingly become valuable as various businesses are able to leverage their access to data in order to create and upsell other services. Data is increasingly becoming a valuable commodity for platforms. The increase in digital transactions and individuals with access to the internet require the implementation of privacy regulations in order to uphold the privacy rights of individuals while still allowing the flow of data across entities and jurisdictions. However, the ability of platforms to engage in cross-border transactions or operations are affected by the stringent requirements of data protection laws, coupled with the divergent regulations among jurisdictions. Such divergence also serves to weaken the ability of regulations to curb undesirable data processing practices, as platforms may take advantage of jurisdictions with weaker data protection rules in place. The effectivity of data protection mechanisms, which are focused on a consent-based regime, may also have some intended consequences where regulations have allowed platforms to legally exploit data without actually providing greater control to the data subjects themselves. With the Philippines as an example, this paper points out the salient points in existing data protection regulations and the impact of these principles on both platforms and data subjects. Given that data fuels the operations of digital platforms and other technology companies, restrictions on how data may be used, shared, stored, or otherwise processed, will undoubtedly affect digital platforms economically and operationally. This paper aims to demonstrate how data protection regulations impact the operation of regional digital platforms and data subjects. It will also suggest policy considerations for the continuous development of such regulations. To illustrate and provide an analysis on data protection regulations vis a vis the digital platforms, Part II of this Paper will do a thorough analysis of the data protection regulations in the Philippines. Part III will provide an overview of the existing international frameworks and a snapshot of the regulations of certain Asia Pacific countries with regard to the transfer of data to offshore jurisdictions. Part IV will be a discussion on the implications of data protection regulations on the operations and viability of digital platforms. It will include the effects of such data protection legislation and regulations on the data subjects, and on digital platforms. Part V will identify certain regulatory and policy actions that may be considered moving forward.

This paper examines how digital platforms work and reviews their impacts across different sectors. We look at the experience of the Philippines and other countries focusing on e-commerce and ride-hailing/delivery service platforms. Government-initiated platforms and applications in agriculture were also discussed. The review of the literature highlights the various positive and negative effects of digital platforms in achieving inclusive and sustainable economic development. The emergence of various digital platforms and the technologies that drive them will continue to shape our economy and society in ways that we cannot yet fully anticipate. How well we manage the risks and exploit the opportunities will largely depend on finding the appropriate role of the government in the platform economy and the quality of regulatory governance.

In the year since Singapore's National AI Strategy (NAIS) was launched, intensifying rivalry between China and the US and a global pandemic have upended the operating context. To sustain its AI ambitions, Singapore must re-evaluate how it will attract the global flows of talent and investment essential to realising its goals.

Progress toward achieving many of the goals under the five pillars of the Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (MSDP) is closely linked to the quality of government spending on local infrastructure and services. In order to achieve these goals, this spending needs to be: Effective: both adequate and aligned to the varying needs and priorities of different localities; Efficient: making best use of scarce budgetary resources to maximum output and impact; Equitable: allocated across both communities and territorial jurisdictions in a manner that is fair, and which responds to varying local needs and resources; Sustainable: kept at consistent annual levels, and ensures that assets created are operated and maintained to generate services and benefits over the long term ; Transparent and accountable: budget allocation decisions should be clear to all and not arbitrary. Achieving the necessary quality of spending along these dimensions depends on many factors – the quality of general governance and the quality of public financial management, but also critically depends on the nature of the mechanisms in place to finance local spending. This report therefore: examines the arrangements for this financing, and their practical consequences for government spending at state/region and township levels; identifies any current or potential future problems in these arrangements; and suggests areas where improvements and reforms might be made.

In this paper, we propose a multi stakeholder governance model and specific structures for various types of troubled assets. We would like to stress the exponentially increasing cost of delay in taking action for Turkish banking sector, corporates and broader economy.

This report looks at the regulatory environment for satellite communication across several countries along with a discussion on how the market has evolved globally. Section 2 focuses on the potential demand for commercial satellite communications in India, with illustrations around current applications as well as future use cases. Section 3 provides a global comparison of policy frameworks for Satcom with an illustration of the current policy and regulatory framework in India. Section 4 summarises the report and offers policy recommendations that could help facilitate the growth of commercial satellite communications without affecting the strategic requirements from the sector.

Once the crown jewel of Malaysia's rural development drive, the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda)'s settler schemes are now approaching an inflection point. Years of gross corporate mismanagement, depreciating farm assets, and indifferent commodity prices have strangled the organisation's cash flow to the point where it claims it can no longer afford to pay its settlers, staff and contractors on time. To help stave off Felda's apparent looming bankruptcy, Malaysia's new Pakatan Harapan-dominated parliament is due to table a much-anticipated White Paper before mid-April 2019, proposing strategic solutions to Felda's current malaise. Settler representatives hope that the federal authorities will generously favour Felda settlers, turn back the clock, write off a large amount of settler debt, and help the group reclaim key assets now under the purview of FGV Holdings Bhd (FGV). Post-GE14, the Pakatan-led government, however, is saddled with broader responsibilities that complicate responses to Felda's current woes. These include obligations to FGV's new management and institutional shareholders, which besides Felda and related agencies (who together hold 38.8 percent of FGV's shares), extend to statutory Islamic investment fund Lembaga Tabung Haji (7.78 per cent), public sector pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraaan (Diperbadankan) (7.83 per cent) and the state governments of Pahang (5 percent) and Sabah (4.07 per cent). Some form of compromise between different sectoral interests is virtually guaranteed, and will involve federal funding in one form or another. Paradoxically, this tricky situation comes just when Pakatan is facing an unprecedented opportunity to win the hearts and minds of rural Malay voters; an opportunity that may not be on offer again for some time.