Singapore’s International Flavour to Construction and Arbitration
I had a great meal in an ethnic Indian restaurant recently and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the cook was an overseas Chinese!
The construction industry, like the food and beverage business, shows considerable partiality to foreign workers. The most common reason – lower labour costs. Thus, the construction industry is filled with foreign workers running the gamut from India, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and even Myanmar.
Things however look set to change with the 2010 budget announcement including a call to increase local productivity as foreign workers now comprise almost a third of the total workforce. This has led to government moves to reduce dependence [...]
Provisional sums and reasonable profit in FIDIC Yellow Book
I am a consultant and the appointed “Engineer” working on a harbour construction project in Eastern Asia, using the FIDIC Yellow (Design & Build) Book. Some confusion has arisen over the interpretation of Provisional Sums and reasonable profit.
Self-determination not litigation
Court resources are scarce. This is a universal truth, although no one seems to have cracked the code that will solve the problem.
The answer may be as simple as alternative dispute resolution. Sensible commercial parties have always engaged in ADR and more and more jurisdictions around the world are promoting a culture where you can’t expect your day in court until you have tried to sort out your dispute yourself.
But can ADR really be forced on to potential litigants?
Although ADR has been promoted in different ways in different countries, the aim has always been the same – to reduce legal costs, increase efficiency, bring about a cultural change and free up limited court resources. [...]
