The Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia through its Directorate-General for Multilateral Affairs and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia in Geneva and in cooperation with United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) will hold a Workshop on “Settlement of Investment Disputes” in Jakarta, 29 — 30 May 2006.

 

The Workshop will present a panel of three speakers: Ant Hyder Au (Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C.), Ucheora Onwuamaegbu (Senior Counselor in ICSID, World Bank), and Chitra Radhakishun (UN’s Project Manager for International Dispute Settlement Capacity Building, UNCTAD).

 

The Workshop is about mechanisms in settling investment disputes – including private-to-state ones - through international arbitration at the ICSID. The Workshop is aimed at enhancing the understanding and awareness of Indonesian stakeholders on the mechanisms to settle foreign direct investment (FDI) – related disputes. With the increasing flow of FDIs into Indonesia, there needs to be an effort to increase stakeholders’ understanding in the country on various rules of investment dispute settlement. Its necessity arises from the fact that there has been a rise in investment disputes worldwide since the 1990s. Until November 2005, there have been 219 private-to-state dispute cases, 132 of them were taken to the ICSID. The world trend needs to be coped with, considering there is a possibility for Indonesia to be involved in an international-scale investment dispute.

 

To ensure a comprehensive understanding on the concepts, the rules, application and mechanisms of investment dispute settlement, the Workshop will be held in the form of lectures, presentations, training and simulation. In the lectures and presentations, the forum will discuss background, concepts, and applications that formed the basics of ICSID’s dispute settlement system.  Training and simulation will be held to further enhance the understanding of Workshop participants by applying and presenting the subjects given.