Preface

Mr. Kim Hak Su

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and
Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

            It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Third Annual Forum on Online Dispute Resolution, hosted by the International Conflict Resolution Centre (ICRC) at the University of Melbourne in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

            Organization of this Forum in the Asia-Pacific region is very timely. Internet users in Asia and the Pacific now account for over a third of all Internet users in the world. The volume of Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce transactions in the region is rising quickly and, with an expected value of $300 billion for 2004, it is already much larger than that of the European Union.

            These numbers are encouraging. However, they should not mask the wide differences which exist across countries in the region. While countries like Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore have developed world-class e-commerce infrastructures, many countries in the region still lack the basic legal and physical systems that would allow them to take advantage of information and communication technologies to facilitate exchanges of information, goods and services.

For this reason, UNESCAP, in cooperation with the Government of France, will be holding a Regional Expert Conference on “Harmonized Development of E-commerce Legal and Regulatory Systems in Asia and the Pacific” focusing on the current legal challenges and capacity building needs. I am very pleased to report that this Conference, to be held in Bangkok at the end of the week (7-9 July), will report the conclusions and findings of the Third ODR Forum to government officials and participants from over 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. 

            The link between the two events is obvious. ODR will benefit from a more internationally and functionally interoperable regulatory framework.  At the same time, an effective legal and regulatory framework is only there to enable the development and use of useful and important ICT applications, such as technology-based ODR platforms. 

Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

ODR can contribute to a more open and non-discriminatory trading system – the key targets of the Millennium Development Goals approved by the United Nations General Assembly. ODR can contribute to such a trading system by reducing the friction cost associated with electronic commerce and encouraging its growth.

As cross-border exchanges continue to grow, and as commercial transactions are increasingly conducted via the Internet, the need for more effective ODR mechanisms has become evident. Over the first four years of this new millennium, ODR has become recognized as a needed process in the online environment to resolve e-commerce related disputes. However, it is also recognized that ODR technologies that work for online disputes may also be used to efficiently resolve the more “traditional” cross-border disputes originating offline. As a result, development of ODR services might lead to a global economic and political priority amongst governments, consumer protection organisations, transnational organisations, and dispute resolution providers.

We are particularly interested in the debate on the role of governments in ODR. The adoption of ODR by government agencies in the developed countries will probably affect regulatory framework on ODR in these countries. Governments may also have a role in helping the development of norms, standards, as well as in applying ODR technologies and innovations to their judicial system and to resolve disputes between themselves and their citizens.

Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am confident that this Forum will once again significantly contribute to the advancement of ODR through discussions of current challenges, best practices and technological innovations. Let me assure you that UNESCAP stands ready to support the Forum in its goal to develop ODR systems which can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society.