This positive development will introduce important protections for same-sex couples and may hopefully also spur other governments in Asia to move forward with similar initiatives.

In a parallel development, Taiwan is also set to introduce a version of same-sex marriage, despite a vote against this in a recent public vote.

It is hoped that such steps will create momentum towards full marriage equality, e.g. as was the case in the UK which introduced a formal Civil Partnership structure prior to its introduction of full marriage equality.