To bring a more effective arbitration system into being, the KCAB (The Korean Commercial Arbitration Board) is expanding its business scope and designing protocols that would pave the way for such a system to be introduced. In short, the Board is seeking ways and means by which Korea existing arbitration legislation can be modernized as well as being brought in line with international standards in the interests of developing the national arbitration system. Park Sam-kyu, KCAB president further says in a special exclusive interview with The Korea IT Times, "The Board is scouting for experts in a variety of fields such as e-commerce and environment as for new arbitrators to bring about the swift and fair solution of all sorts of disputes."

Park Sam-kyu, KCAB president

At present, KCAB (www.kcab.or.kr) extends its arbitration services to a total of 1,078 authorities with whom it deals with confidence and sincerity along with specialist knowledge gained through 20 years of experience in a variety of fields such as the law, the academic world, the industry, and special institutions of every kind. The KCAB is planning to acquire arbitration personnel who can operate effectively in dealing new and emerging areas of business as such as e-commerce as well as the environmental field and so forth, where disputes have recently begun to increase rapidly. The president said that KCAB successfully mediated in a total of 659 disputes submitted to the Board last year. Notably disputes submitted to the Board associated with technology shot up last year, with issues related to software and machinery increasing by133.3% in comparison with the preceding year. In addition, the Board has handled 4,089 cases in related to unwanted marketing efforts via the telephone, home visits, and by e-mail in order to forestall commercial disputes at home and abroad. As part of plans to activate a new arbitration system, the KCAB is currently striving to act as an arbitrator in commercial matters between North and South Korea, for the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ), as well as attempting to consolidate the existing arbitration system, Park explains. First of all, with regard to North and South commercial arbitration, the KCAB plans to put a system in place to handle possible disputes that might arise between trading companies in distributing manufactured products from the Kaesung Industrial Complex. For this purpose, the Board is aiming to establish a North/South commercial arbitration judgment room and a dispute consultation room where it can also and hold intra-Korean policy seminars as well as moot North/South commercial arbitration sessions. Second, the Board also is contributing to improving the national investment environment for foreign invested corporations as well as for domestic corporations in the IFEZ and within the Incheon area through its efforts at arbitration of commercial disputes that it began on Oct. 20 last year. Thirdly, for the sake of developing a new arbitration system, the Board is proceeding with the modernization of Korea arbitration legislation as well as a number of international exchange project designed to help bring the Korean system closer to international standards. On the question as to how will the KCAB cope with the increase of arbitration cases related to accidents at home and abroad such as those concerning construction projects and commercial shipping, Park said that the Board is devising a specialty in arbitrating in maritime affairs, as well as strengthening international cooperation, plus the capability to resolve maritime affairs-related dispute effectively. Dispute arbitration has applications in a wide variety of fields, covering trade, marine transportation, construction, insurance, finance, real estate, and technology. The KCAB president concluded by saying that the Board is enlarging its scope to include joint investment, M&A, entertainment, and the IT field too. He said that arbitration is an effective method of dispute solution in the information communication and science technology fields since it can settle matters related to patent rights, trade secrets, and invasion of privacy without public disclosure.