Singapore Expands Arbitration Influence In Asia

12 Apr 2013

AFTER a 25 per cent surge in demand, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre is opening offices in India and South Korea to streamline the flow of work to the island state.

The centre also has adopted a new structure that will concentrate its arbitral expertise in a new Court of Arbitration under the presidency of Australia's Michael Pryles.

The new structure is modelled on the system used by the London Court of International Arbitration and the International Chamber of Commerce.

While the arbitral functions of the SIAC have moved to its new Court of Arbitration, the corporate compliance, finance and marketing functions remain with the centre's board chaired by Lucien Wong, chairman and senior partner of Allen & Gledhill.

Dr Pryles said two of the world's most eminent arbitrators had agreed to join the centre's new court: Jan Paulsson of Paris and Gary Born of London.

It has 16 leading arbitration practitioners from countries that include Bahrain, Belgium, China, France, India, Japan, Singapore, Britain and the US.

SIAC will open an office this month in Mumbai, under the directorship of India's Pallavi Shroff, a senior partner at Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co.

The Court of Arbitration also features one of India's top barristers, Harish Salve, a former solicitor-general of India who practices primarily before the Supreme Court of India.

An office in Seoul will be opened later this year and a third offshore office, in the Persian Gulf, is being considered.

Dr Pryles said some arbitration work would be done in India, but the Mumbai office would focus primarily on highlighting SIAC's service in Singapore.

"Our three key markets are India, China and Indonesia," Dr Pryles said.

"We send people over to India all the time to put on conferences and seminars. We have two Indians on our court and another Indian on our board of directors.

"India is enormously important; they have basically moved their (commercial arbitration) work from London to Singapore."

These moves come soon after SIAC handled 235 new international commercial disputes last year, a 25 per cent increase on the year before.

Parties from China generated the highest number of non-Singaporean matters (44), followed by India (42), Indonesia (27), the US (25) and Hong Kong (18). Parties from Australia filed nine matters.

Singapore government figures show that the value of legal services exports has grown from $S363 million in 2008 to $S551m in 2011.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/singapore-expands-arbitration-influence-in-asia/story-e6frg97x-1226618573326