China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) has successfully completed the renewal of the Panel of Mediators and officially announced the new Panel of Mediators on June 1, 2023.

The diversification of dispute resolution services has become one of the major trends in the development of dispute resolution in the world. The United Nations Convention on international Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (i.e. the Singapore Convention on Mediation) entered into force in September 2020, marking the new era of international commercial dispute resolution, known as the New York Convention of mediation. Domestically, the high-quality development of the economy also requires diversified dispute resolution services. The Central Committee of the Party has made a critical decision to build a diversified dispute resolution mechanism. President Xing Jinping explicitly noted that “non-litigation dispute resolution mechanism should be put at the first place”. In response to the international trends, the call of the country, the demands of economic development, and the needs of enterprises to resolve disputes, CIETAC keeps being innovative. It not only provides independent, impartial, and globally renowned arbitration services, but also, benefiting from its rich experience in dispute resolution and a team of experts, provides domestic and foreign parties with diverse dispute resolution services such as mediation and construction disputes review.

CIETAC set up the Mediation Centre in May 2018 and released the CIETAC Mediation Rules in the same year. On 1 June 2019, CIETAC announced the first Panel of Mediators, building a team of first-class domestic and international mediators. The “Oriental Experience” pioneered by CIETAC to combine arbitration with mediation, and a team of experts with professional experience, build a good foundation and conditions for providing mediation services. Through the establishment of mechanisms and rules, CIETAC has not only provided commercial mediation services, but also established the mechanism to connect mediation-arbitration, media-in-litigation and litigation-mediation-arbitration, providing the parties with “one-stop” diversified dispute resolution services.

The professional competence and ethics of mediators are important guarantees for handling mediation cases properly and resolving disputes effectively. Therefore, CIETAC attaches great importance to the work of the renewal of the Panel.

CIETAC announced the renewal and opened the application channel for mediators to the public on April 6 2023. There was a considerable number of domestic and international applications. After strict selection, CIETAC decided to confer mediator qualifications to 300 domestic and foreign experts, 181 of them are renewed while 119 of them are newly accredited. There are 265 Mainland China mediators from 23 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities, with eight new provinces/autonomous regions, 35 experts from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and 11 other foreign countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Brazil, Italy, Ger-many, France, Canada and Singapore. The mediators’ expertise covers a wide range of industries, including financial securities, construction and real estate, trade, investment, Sino-foreign joint ventures, intellectual property rights, natural resources, film and television industries, etc. Mediators work in languages such as Chinese, English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, as well as dialects such as Cantonese, Hakka and Minnan dialect. They are able to satisfy the needs of parties to mediate in different countries, regions and industries.

To further the development in the need for resolving intellectual property disputes, the renewal has particularly considered to include mediators work in the field of intellectual property. The number of mediators specializing in intellectual property in the new Panel of Mediators has increased to 73, accounting for around 24.3% of the total number. Their expertise covers trademarks, copyrights, unfair competition, trade secrets, evaluation of design patent; intellectual property affairs in electronics, communications, computers, and semiconductor displays, integrated circuits, and related trade investigations; customs, administrative enforcement, franchising, network security, and data security compliance, etc.

Through the renewal, CIETAC has further improved the diversity, professionalism and internationalization of the mediators, optimized the mediation services, and plays an essential role in settling social conflicts, promoting social harmony, and creating a modernized, rule-of-law business environment.

The new Panel of Mediators has been officially published at the official website of CIETAC (www.cietac.org). Parties can log on to inquire more detailed information of the mediators in the “ADR Service” – “Mediation” – “Panel of Mediators”. CIETAC looks forward to continuing to provide professional and efficient commercial mediation services for domestic and foreign parties.