It’s official!

The CanLaw Report were invited to witness the signing ceremony of the Supplementary Agreement held between the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO) and the Government of Malaysia on 7th February 2018.

The agreement represents a step forward for the arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) community.

With this, the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) is officially renamed to the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) under the Arbitration (Amendment) Act 2018 passed on the 10th January 2018.

The agreement was signed by Dato’ Sri Azalina Othman, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Legal Affairs and His Excellency, Professor Kennedy Gastorn, Secretary-General of AALCO.

The Attorney General of Malaysia (4th from the left) and others at the signing ceremony. (Photo by AIAC)

So here’s a simple breakdown!

With the recognition of an international status, AIAC is able to play on a international field, a larger scale than what KLRCA used to operate.

Datuk Professor Sundra Rajoo, Director of the Asian International Arbitration Centre (Malaysia) speech (Photo By AIAC)

“With our new identity, we hope it reflects our role in both domestic and international market and to be the Asian Global Hub for ADR” – Datuk Sundra Rajoo

Why is this so important?

Arbitration is a cheaper, faster and simpler solution rather than bringing cases to court, as explained by the Attorney General. With its new scale, Datuk Sri Azalina hopes to “go above and beyond” in providing the best ADR services domestically and internationally.

That means more worth on the bucks spent because legal fees aren’t cheap these days

Moreover, AIAC will expand the ground works laid by KLRCA for the past 4 decades.

Among the center achievements were the introduction of the Islamic Arbitration Rules 2017 which provided reliable methods solving disputes involving Shariah Principles and also being the world first center to launch its own suite of building contracts.

Dato Sundra assured that with the support of the Malaysian Government, AIAC will have improved infrastructure and better laws to make them into a global competitive leader.

Furthermore, AIAC will be more ASEAN-centric. This is great as it is gives a sense of local representation of the social and economic changes.