(Thanks to @ColmBrannigan for this)

Full article from www.ThenewLawyer.com [here]

AUSTRALIA has strengthened its position in the expanding market for international dispute resolution in the Asia Pacific region following an international forum in Seoul, Korea.

An Australian delegation that included NSW Attorney General, John Hatzsistergos, and other leading lawyers, met with Korea's leading corporate in-house counsel, corporate executives and law firm legal directors who specialise in international arbitration.

This comes as Sydney has been positioning itself as a competitor to the established seats for international arbitration in Hong Kong and Singapore, and follows the opening of a new dispute resolution venue in the city last year.

“This is why Australia is beginning to attract strong interest from corporations in the Asia Pacific region and beyond who are increasingly looking to avoid the uncertainty of litigation in foreign courts,” Hatzsistergos said.

Australian delegates at the forum, Navigating Choices in International Arbitration: Options for Korea in the Asia-Pacific Region, also included Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) president and Clayton Utz partner Professor Doug Jones AM, ACICA vice president and Holman Fenwick & Willan partner Alex Baykitch....

A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey in 2008, 'International Arbitration: Corporate attitudes and practices', revealed 73 per cent of corporations prefer to use international arbitration to resolve their cross-border disputes rather than transnational litigation and saw arbitration as a means to successfully preserve business relationships....