​As part of ICSID’s outreach program, Secretary-General Meg Kinnear and Senior Counsel Martina Polasek traveled to six countries in Asia this fall to meet with government and private sector officials, participate in conferences and provide training on ICSID process. ICSID issued a special focus issue of statistics regarding cases from the South & East Asia & the Pacific (SEAP) Region as background for this training.

On November 17, 2014, Ms. Kinnear spoke at a seminar in Singapore organized by Maxwell Chambers. The Secretary-General gave a presentation on recent events and ongoing initiatives at ICSID as it approaches the 50th anniversary of the ICSID Convention.

Concurrently, Ms. Polasek participated in the 3rd Asia Pacific ADR Conference in Seoul, organized by UNCITRAL, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board. She gave a presentation on the procedural framework applicable to an investment treaty arbitration under the UNCITRAL Rules as compared with the ICSID Convention and Arbitration Rules.

On November 19, 2014, Ms. Kinnear and Ms. Polasek gave a full day introductory training course on ICSID process in Singapore as part of the Arbitration Academy Program organized by the National University of Singapore (NUS). The course took participants from the region through each step of an arbitration proceeding under the ICSID Convention, with reference to primary and secondary materials such as procedural templates and charts.

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The following day, Ms. Kinnear and Ms. Polasek gave a training course on ICSID practice and current trends in investment arbitration at the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On the occasion of this event, ICSID and the KLRCA signed an updated collaboration agreement which further strengthens the cooperation and knowledge sharing between the two institutions. The original agreement was concluded in 1979.

During their stay in Malaysia, Ms. Kinnear and Ms. Polasek met with counsel, arbitrators and government officials from various Ministries, as well as Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s strategic investment fund. They provided an overview of ICSID and investment treaty arbitration, addressed questions and welcomed views on possible improvements to the arbitral process.

On November 24, Ms. Kinnear and Ms. Polasek provided an overview of ICSID and ICSID dispute settlement as part of a training program organized by the Philippine Judicial Academy and hosted by the Chief Justice of the Philippines, Honorable Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno, at the Supreme Court. More than 150 judges and employees of the Supreme Court attended this seminar.

Ms. Kinnear and Ms. Polasek also provided training and had discussions concerning investment dispute settlement with experts in Hanoi, Viet Nam and Seoul, Korea.

Finally, from December 1 to 13, Secretary-General Kinnear and Prof. Andrea K. Bjorklund, ICSID’s scholar-in-residence, participated in the International Arbitration and Dispute Settlement Course-Basic Concepts of International Investment Arbitration at the Tsinghua University School of Law, in Beijing, China. They gave several lectures on various topics in investment treaty arbitration, including ICSID procedure. Secretary-General Kinnear also gave an introductory training course on practice and procedure in an ICSID Convention arbitration. This presentation was attended by over 160 students, counsel and academics. During her visit she also met with government officials, counsel, arbitrators and representatives of CIETAC.