A new multimillion-dollar airport was built, but the builders were unhappy.
The main builder, an Asian construction company, had held back payments to its subcontractor, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, because the latter could not meet the terms of the contract due to unforeseen circumstances.
After a two-year stalemate, representatives of both companies flew to Singapore, sat down with a mediator and, within a day, agreed on a payment arrangement that satisfied both sides.
“If you want to carry on with business, each side must give and take,” said George Lim, the Singaporean mediator for the project.
“You suffer a bit, I suffer a bit, we carry on and maybe in the next project, we make more together.”Lim chairs the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC), a non-profit organisation that is part of Singapore’s efforts to position itself as a hub for dispute resolution.
He is proud of his 75% success rate when it comes to resolving disputes through mediation. His secret: Serving tea to calm parties down and get them into a friendlier mood.
After the centre signed a memorandum of understanding with the China International Contractors Association on Aug 27, more Chinese companies will likely take their disputes with foreign companies to Singapore for mediation.
Many of the association’s 1,500 members are state-owned companies involved in Belt and Road projects.
The Belt and Road Initiative is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature policy to build infrastructure across the world. Chinese companies sometimes team up with foreign companies to complete these projects. — The Straits Times/ANN
