Events & Speeches

Welcome Speech by the Chairman, Singapore Mediation Centre the Honourable Justice Goh Joon Seng at the SMC's First Anniversary Celebration

The Honourable the Chief Justice Mr Yong Pung How, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you for being with us this morning to celebrate the First Anniversary of the Singapore Mediation Centre ("SMC"). Since its launch a year ago, the SMC has received tremendous support in its mission to promote mediation as a mechanism for alternative dispute resolution or ADR. The support came from both the private and public sectors in Singapore and overseas. This has enabled us to whittle down the initial resistance and negative reactions from certain interest groups to the use of mediation. It has also enabled us to build up a pool of trained and dedicated mediators from various disciplines who readily give their time to take on cases assigned to them.

Besides holding workshops to train and upgrade its own mediators, the SMC has also provided training for mediators for different organisations and groups, including the mediators of the Community Mediation Centres set up by the Ministry of Law. We have also trained lawyers and other professionals in the private sector to be mediation advocates. Many officers in the government service have also been trained by the SMC. To date, more than 650 persons have undergone various training programmes provided by the SMC. Of these, 81 are now in our panel of mediators. Later on in this morningís programme, another batch of 15 mediators will be accredited to our panel.

Our case load during the past year is comparable to that of established and leading ADR institutions overseas. For example, the Centre for Dispute Resolution ("CEDR") established in England in 1990 mediated 198 cases in its last financial year. The centre named Lawyers Engaged in Alternative Dispute Resolution ("LEADR") which was established in Australia in 1989 facilitated 71 mediations last year. The SMC, taking into account the number of cases mediated under its pilot project, the Commercial Mediation Service, has to date mediated 212 cases with a settlement rate which ranged from 75 to 85% in the last few months. Another 46 cases have been scheduled for mediation next week. The settlements which have been secured thus far has saved the nation more than $10,000,000 in terms of resources that would otherwise have to be deployed by the courts and the parties to resolve the disputes through litigation. What is more important is that relationships, be they personal or business, are salvaged and preserved through the mediation process. The feedback provided by counsel and parties who have utilised our services has been encouraging.

Besides being a mediation service provider, the SMC has also been engaging in promotion activities on ADR awareness through the media and talks to potential end users of its services. To date, 19 professional and trade organisations have entered into memoranda of understanding with the SMC pledging to promote mediation among their members. The recent Memoranda were entered with Association of Singapore Realtors, Eagles Mediation and Counselling Centre, National Association of Travel Agents, Singapore, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and Singapore Power Limited. I would like to thank them for their support. I would also like to thank the judiciary which has been supporting the mediation movement and the work of the SMC from the very first day. Thanks are also due to the legal profession which has passed the benefits of mediation to their clients. As at the beginning of this month, about 222 law firms have referred their clientsí disputes to the SMC for mediation.

We believe that the quality of our mediators should be one of our strengths. To this end, in the coming year, we will continue to upgrade their skills. More workshops will be organised. In fact, the next series will be conducted from 21 to 28 September this year. We will press on with our campaign to promote mediation in Singapore. The next challenge for the SMC will be to promote Singapore as a regional or international hub for ADR services like mediation. We intend to do that through the Trade and Development Boardís network of offices and our own network of ADR partners and counterparts in other parts of the world.

To commemorate this occasion, the SMC has produced a book entitled "Our First Year in Finding Solutions Together", which records the work of the SMC in the past year. This book is dedicated to all those who have made the SMCís achievements possible. It is with great pleasure that I now present the first copy of this book to our Guest of Honour, the Honourable the Chief Justice, and to invite His Honour to address us.