The Malaysian Mediation Centre (“MMC”) of the Bar Council has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding and a Cooperation Agreement with the Mediation Centre of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (“CCPIT”).
The signing ceremony took place in the city of Hangzhou during the International Mediation Summit held on 18 and 19 September 2017.
This entails the setting up of two centres — one in Kuala Lumpur and one in Beijing — to provide support for the businesses and also to provide assistance in resolving disputes that may arise in cross-border commercial transactions under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (“BRI”).
The BRI is a development strategy proposed by China that focuses on connectivity and cooperation between China, the rest of Asia and Europe. The BRI is to provide infrastructure that can accelerate growth across Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, which is estimated to involve more than USD900 billion of infrastructure investments.
The Memorandum of Understanding and the Cooperation Agreement were signed by George Varughese, President of the Malaysian Bar, on behalf of the Malaysian Mediation Centre, and Li Jianning, the Director General of CCPIT Commercial Legal Services Centre.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding and the Cooperation Agreement, both Centres will jointly promote international commercial mediation to resolve disputes between companies in Malaysia and China involved in the infrastructure development under the BRI.
Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari
Chairman
Malaysian Mediation Centre
3 October 2017