China-Asean Law Institute Opening

KHMER TIMES
MAY KUNMAKARA

China and Asean move closer through the China-Asean Law Cooperation Institution. Reuters

The Chinese government is opening the China-Asean Law Cooperation Institution in Cambodia and will allow its commercial arbitrators to work with the Kingdom’s National Commercial Arbitration Center (NCAC) to handle business conflicts for Chinese investors or businessmen across Asean.

The decision comes along with the recent rise in investment from China to Cambodia as well as the close relationship between governments, said NCAC president Ros Monin.

“The China-Asean Law Cooperation Institution will officially open on [Thursday] after already getting approval from our government in September. Their ‘one belt, one road’ policy has many aspects to help the development of all Asean member states, including a law sector,” he said.

According to Mr. Monin, the institution is an independent organization approved by the Chinese government and aims to cooperate with all Asean countries in the law sector to help and protect investors. The institution also has a commercial arbitration section that will cooperate with the NCAC.

“The China-Asean Law Cooperation Institution will also house China’s arbitration center which will cooperate with our arbitration center to deal with all their investors who have business problems in our country or other Chinese businessmen or investors who are doing business in other Asean countries,” he said.

“This means we will play a big role representing all Chinese communities for conflicts happening in any Asean country – they can either come here or go to China.

“With the cooperation of China’s commercial arbitration center, they will register their Chinese arbitrators to work with us. I think when we have this cooperation, we will get more Chinese investors coming to us because their government authorized this institution to handle all their investors’ business conflicts.”

Last week, hundreds of Chinese investors and businessmen joined the first ever Cambodia-China Business Forum in Phnom Penh where a $1.5 billion business deal was inked to build a new satellite city north of the capital.

At the same time, Prime Minister Hun Sen, who presided over the forum, also agreed to offer three-year, multiple-entry visas to Chinese and South Korean investors to make doing business easier and to increase investment in the Kingdom.

Mr. Hun Sen said China was the biggest injector of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Cambodia, adding that the two countries were pushing for $5 billion in trade this year.

Meanwhile Mey Kalyan, a senior advisor to the Supreme National Economic Council, told Khmer Times last week that Cambodia must be very careful making any decisions with Asia’s largest economy as the two countries have different economic systems.

“Of course, we have observed that the relationship between the two countries has become deeper and deeper, both government to government and the private sector,” he said. “At the same time, before we decide to do anything together, we have to be selective in any areas or sector – whether it gives economic benefits.

“We have to look at three main impacts – economic impact, social impact and environmental impact – as they are like the giant which is based on a communist system and we are the very small one which follows a market economy.”