XN000022-1996-10-04 — Page 28

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"To meet with growing competition from other arbitration centres such as Singapore and Sydney, the Administration considers that it is necessary to keep our law up-to-date and efficient and the existing Arbitration Ordinance should be amended to remove the anomalies and problems identified," he said.

The new key proposals featured in the Bill are as follows:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(1)

(g)

the circumstances in which arbitration agreements are to be regarded as being in writing (and thus within the Ordinance) are extended, and include cases where an agreement to arbitrate is not signed by the parties, as is often the case in a Bill of Lading:

in conducting arbitration proceedings, an arbitral tribunal must act fairly and impartially between the parties:

an arbitral tribunal will have certain powers in the conduct of arbitration proceedings, such as to order that security for costs be provided by the parties, or to grant an interim injunction restraining a party from disposing of certain property;

where parties to an arbitration agreement commence proceeding in the High Court, the court may exercise certain powers in respect of the proceedings. These powers include the power to make an order directing an amount in dispute to be secured. The court may decline to exercise its power if the matter is being dealt with by an arbitral tribunal or if it finds that it would be more appropriate for the matter to be dealt with by an arbitral tribunal;

an arbitral tribunal may, after hearing from the parties, make an order to extend the time limit for a party to commence arbitration proceedings if it is just to do so. It may also dismiss a claim if a claimant has unreasonably delayed in bringing the claim;

an arbitral tribunal may order compound interest to be paid by a party so as to properly compensate the party who has been wrongly kept out of the payment;

for the avoidance of doubt or eventual disputes, it is provided that parties to the proceedings shall be jointly and severally liable to pay the reasonable fees and expenses of arbitral tribunal;