SINGAPORE: Singapore's Law Minister K Shanmugam said Singapore will continue to develop the arbitration sector and be pro-arbitration. It will also move in line with industry needs.
He was speaking at the opening plenary session of the 21st Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration.
Mr Shanmugam told
the international legal fraternity that the Centre of International Law
and the National University of Singapore's law faculty will be setting
up the Singapore International Arbitration Academy later this year. It
is the result of collaboration between leading arbitration practitioners
and scholars from around the world.
Mr Shanmugam is confident
that the academy will contribute to the development of expertise in
international arbitration, in a region where the need for such expertise
continues to grow.
Giving an update on the Singapore
International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), he said it handled 188 new
cases last year. Of these, 135 were international cases fully
administered in accordance with SIAC's rules.
By contrast, the
Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre administered a total of 41
new cases in 2011, including domestic cases.
Mr Shanmugam said this year is already a better year.
In the first five months of 2012, the SIAC handled 118 new cases, double the number handled in the same period last year.
The
total value of these cases were over S$2 billion. This exceeded the
total value of cases handled by the SIAC for the whole of last year,
which stood at S$1.3 billion.
-CNA/ac
Especially increasingly so in conflict of laws in commercial cases spanning ASEAN ANZ. At least these various centres communicate with each other and are more hormogenous.
That is why Sg having the SIAC as the hub for SEA was a prudent move. I would prefer it handled in Sg. Just because of the demographic.