Hakim Hayat
China’s top court appointed Bruneian and Queen’s Counsel Dr Colin Ong to an international expert committee serving the China International Commercial Court (CICC), according to a report from The Straits Times recently.
Dr Ong is part of a second group of 24 experts conferred with letters of appointment to the International Commercial Expert Committee (ICEC) on Tuesday by President of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China Chief Justice Zhou Qiang.
The first group of 31 experts were appointed in 2018.
Besides Dr Ong, Singaporean Judge of Appeal Steven Chong and Singaporean Senior Counsel Michael Hwang – were also appointed to the ICEC.
They are among only five non-Chinese nationals from Asia in the newly appointed international group of experts.
ICEC members may mediate in international commercial disputes entrusted by the CICC and advise on specific legal issues in such dispute cases, among other things.
The scope includes potential disputes on projects relating to the numerous countries that are in China’s high-profile Belt and Road Initiative. The initiative is a global infrastructure development strategy forged by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in various countries across continents.
Dr Ong welcomed the signal honour. “I hope my experiences gained while sitting as an international commercial arbitrator can help me in serving and contributing to the work of the ICEC and the CICC. I look forward to dealing with Belt and Road Initiative cases.”
