UN Commission On International Trade Law head calls on Indian special secretary

New Delhi [India], May 9 : Athita Komindr, the head of United Nations Commission On International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RCAP), called on Special Secretary(ER), Prabhat Kumar on Monday. Issues including Investor-State Dispute Settlement reforms, Arbitration, and E-Commerce were discussed.

"Athita Komindr, Head @UNCITRAL_RCAP called on Special Secretary(ER), Prabhat Kumar. A broad range of issues pertaining to various Working Groups of UNCITRAL, including Investor-State Dispute Settlement reforms, Arbitration, E-Commerce were discussed," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi wrote on Twitter.

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law is the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law. A legal body with universal membership specializing in commercial law reform worldwide for over 50 years, UNCITRAL's business is the modernization and harmonisation of rules on international business.

The main objectives of the Regional Centre are to enhance international trade and development in the Asia-Pacific region by promoting certainty in international commercial transactions through the dissemination of international trade norms and standards, in particular, those elaborated by UNCITRAL, to provide bilateral and multilateral technical assistance to States with respect to the adoption and uniform interpretation of UNCITRAL texts through workshops and seminars, to engage in coordination activities with international and regional orgzations active in trade law reform projects in the region and to function as a channel of communication between states in the region and UNCITRAL.

The regional centre will actively engage in numerous technical assistance activities while developing custom-tailored strategies for the dissemination of UNCITRAL texts in the region. In the framework of those strategies and of the ensuing initiatives, the Regional Centre will be orgsing and contributing to a number of national and regional meetings on various UNCITRAL topics.

As additional funding will be required to expand the role of the Regional Centre, fundraising will remain one of the Regional Centre's core activities. States may wish to take note of the activities of the Regional Centre in order to include cooperation with that centre in their ongoing and future trade law reform technical assistance activities in the Asia-Pacific region.