NZIAC is delighted to announce that it has joined the Asia Pacific Regional Arbitration Group (APRAG).
Whilst NZIAC was founded back in 2013, the decision was taken to await an appropriate time to actively launch its services to the Trans-Pacific Region. That time was 2018 which has seen the Regional International Arbitration Conference in Nadi, Fiji, the ICCA Conference in Sydney, Australia and Queenstown, New Zealand, and the signing of the CPTPP in Chile involving 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including New Zealand, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, and Viet Nam, which together account for 13.5 percent of world GDP – worth a total of US$10 trillion.
The CPTPP is economically significant for New Zealand. Partnering with these countries represents a huge opportunity for New Zealand exporters, opening up markets with a combined population of 480 million people that consume nearly a third of our overall exports and in respect of which, it is essential that those contracting parties have access to prompt, efficient, and effective dispute resolution mechanisms and services which NZIAC is ideally positioned to provide.
This year, as part of its development programme, NZIAC has also launched its 2018 suite of revised Arbitration, Arb-Med, and Mediation Rules. Those Rules and its initiatives in a number of sectors have been met with widespread interest both domestically and throughout the region. We look forward to an exciting future ahead.