On 21-25 January the Permanent Court of Arbitration held its first arbitration week in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Cambodian Secretary of State His Excellency Prom opened the PCA’s arbitration week at the Ministry of Justice. Several representatives of the Cambodian government, the newly appointed board members of the National Arbitration Centre of Cambodia, local arbitration practitioners and scholars attended the opening ceremony. 

Olga Boltenko, a legal counsel at the PCA, spearheaded the PCA’s arbitration week in Phnom Penh. She notes that Cambodia has already put in place most of the fundamental legal framework necessary to support international arbitration. In 2006 Cambodia adopted a new arbitration act based on the UNCITRAL Model Law. This act established the National Arbitration Centre of Cambodia and brought Cambodia’s arbitration legislation and ADR-related mechanisms to a fairly advanced level. These more recent developments built on the international instruments ratified by Cambodia, such as the PCA’s founding conventions, the New York Convention and the Washington Convention. Cambodia has also signed over 20 bilateral investment treaties, of which eleven are currently in force.

Cambodia’s willingness to offer generous investment protection to foreign investors has also exposed Cambodia to investment claims. In 2009, Cambodian Power Company filed a request for arbitration against Cambodia over termination of a major power project.

During the PCA’s interventions in Phnom Penh, Ms. Boltenko ran arbitration workshops for the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Justice. She met with the newly appointed board members of the National Arbitration Centre, and she spoke about arbitration with representatives from the Cambodian justice centers, which are domestic quasi-arbitral institutions. She also delivered a lecture on investment arbitration at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Olga Boltenko: “There is a genuine interest in international arbitration in Cambodia. The most obvious proof of that interest is not only the Cambodian government’s invitation to the PCA to put on this arbitration week but also that the Cambodian government worked with the PCA to tailor the topics discussed at this week’s events to its needs.” Ms. Boltenko hopes the PCA’s arbitration week in Cambodia, one of the PCA’s 115 member-states, will turn into an annual event.

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