FICL hosted Roundtable Discussions with Singapore Minister for Law Edwin Tong

On November 28, Federation of Indian Corporate Lawyers (FICL) hosted Roundtable Discussions on “Role of Legal Dispute Resolution Services in growing World Economy” at Taj Palace, New Delhi with the Hon'ble Second Minister for Law and Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong SC.

The session was attended by 40+ General Counsel/In-House Lawyers, Senior Advocates and other stakeholders from India during his official visit to Delhi, India.

The Hon'ble Minister was accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Law: Ellis See, Director-Legal Industry Division, Angeline Ang-Deputy Director (International Partnerships), Legal Industry Division, Deepa Selvaraj-Senior Executive, Legal Industry Division; Gloria Lim, CEO-Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC); Laurence Wong-Senior Director (Business Development), Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC); Siddharth Jha-Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) and Katherine Yap-COO, Maxwell Chambers. Toby Landu KC, Vice President SIAC and Rajiv Luthra, Board of Directors SIAC were also present. 

From FICL, Dr. Ashok Sharma FCIArb, Founder & CEO, Dr SB Mitra, Hon. President and Rohan Sharma FCIArb Director were present. Along with them, Rajbeer Sachdeva, President (Group) Legal at JK Organisation and Mahesh Sreenivasan, General Manager (Legal and Comapny Secretary) at Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) from the National Advisory Council of FICL also attended.

Dr Lalit Bhasin, Patron FICL & President SILF, highlighted the importance of greater interaction between the General Counsels/In-House Lawyers and Advocates. Dr Bhasin, on behalf of the Indian legal fraternity, SILF, CIARB- India Chapter, assured to extend full cooperation and support to the Minister because the success of arbitration or mediation will depend upon cooperation between professionals, not only external lawyers but mainly the General Counsels/In-House Lawyers both in Singapore and India as well.

Dr Anju Rathi Rana, Additional Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, Government of India, shared the perspective of the Indian Government with the gathering. She stated that the Government is actively promoting means to reduce the burden of the courts, and this is why it has introduced various measures such as mandatory pre-litigation mediation, the establishment of the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre and the promotion of various modes of ADR mechanisms. She further highlighted that the Government is very keen to promote a business-friendly arbitration regime in India.

Minister Edwin Tong, in his keynote address, said that his first official trip outside of Singapore is to India, and they are here because it is important to take a sounding from the Indian stakeholders as to what is working and what they need from them and therefore asked the audience to be candid with their suggestions and views as to what they can do, and how they can work better to deepen the partnership between Singapore and India. He acknowledged that he is here with a large delegation because they truly treasure this partnership and hope to nurture and develop to make it much stronger in the years to come.

The Minister said that Singapore is very open to any organisation that brings 'thought leadership' to Singapore that can help them advance the interest of end users. He pointed out that for this purpose, ICC is present in Maxwell Chambers, INSOL, WIPO and AAA along with several others. With this, he gave a broad sketch of how they developed the principles and vision of the development of ADR Institutions in Singapore with its state-of-the-art facilities.

He highlighted that General Counsels are key drivers of business and have an important role in resolving complex business disputes using the best ADR facilities available, to which Singapore has contributed significantly. Further, he added that fundamentally it is important for him to underscore the point that the relations between Singapore and India have grown tremendously over the last 15-20 years or so, not only in terms of trade but in other areas too. The level of bilateral investments on both sides has gone up substantially. Therefore, trust is the most important between people of both countries, and that depends on companies and certainly between members of our respective legal markets. He hoped that these excellent relations between the two countries would continue to grow in times to come.

After the completion of the formal ceremony, vibrant discussions continued over drinks and dinner between Minister Tong, his Singapore delegation and GCs and other stakeholders present.

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