Earthquake Anniversary: the Red Flag Is Still Flying
The primary school in the earthquake-stricken area aided by BAC has been put into use

　　One year has already pasted since Wenchuan earthquake. Today, it is the first anniversary. The way that BAC people cherish the memory of the disaster is that, to remember the disaster while to concern about he education and growth of the next generation, to further rationally face the reality in the space and the time away from the disaster; furthermore, to rebuild our dignity and self-confidence based on it as a new starting point.

　　One year ago, we brought sharing-weal-and-woe feelings to send a proposal to Arbitration People for contributing their loves to the disaster area. We hold the flag of building “love rainbow” together with the disaster area.

　　After the tensional fundraising, an urgent seminar about earthquake relief donation was convened by the BAC office and jointly held by the members of the development committee that composed of the party branch the trade union and arbitrators in the afternoon of May 21, 2008.

　　Announced in the meeting, a total of RMB 1,057,429.66 Yuan and 200 U.S. dollars have been donated by BAC as of May 21, 2008, where a donation of 500,000 Yuan was passed by the arbitration commission director-level meeting; 200,000 Yuan from the employee benefits was passed by the arbitration commission office meeting of employee representatives, individual contributions of 35,163.66 Yuan (including 21,066.66 Yuan as special Party member dues donated through the Party committee system) from 37 staff; and 124 contributions, inc. commissioners and arbitrators, of RMB 322,266 Yuan and 200 U.S. dollars in total, also including the contributions from the foreign arbitrators of Korea, the United States, France, and Germany. The largest individual contribution is up to 56,000 Yuan, and some of arbitrators even donated all their arbitration remuneration! As a matter of fact, many arbitrators who were giving lectures out of Beijing or abroad, promptly sent their contributions to the home office through various forms after hearing the news.

　　The meeting decided that: 150,000 Yuan of the donations would be given the worst-hit Mianyang Arbitration Commission and 100,000 Yuan to Deyang Arbitration Commission in advance; to transfer our highest respect and deepest sympathy to the two commissions’ staff and arbitrators who are keeping on the frontline of the disaster relief! The remainder of the donations would be for the rehabilitation and rebuilding of the schools in the disaster area. The preliminary planning is to entrust the two commissions to contact the local education institutions for carrying out the school site selection and planning, choosing building units with good quality and reputation to build one or two qualified anti-seismic primary schools. During the construction period, the two commissions would oversee the quality and progress of the project at any time, when necessary, organize relevant professional arbitrators to visit the site in order to ensure the quality of school buildings.

　　Since then, under BAC’s positive contact and the great help of Mianyang City, and with efforts of everyone, the final determination is the one-for-one help rebuild Yuguan Village Primary School of Senhe Town of Jiangyou City in Sichuan Province. According to the local educational planning, Jiangyou Education & Sports Bureau, Jiangyou Red Cross and BAC signed the Donation Agreement on August 6, 2008. In addition, the three parties jointly selected the Beijing No.3 Construction Engineering Co., Ltd. – one of the national excellent construction enterprises with good reputation, management and strong technical force – as the construction unit of the project based on the recommendation and selection of the professional arbitrators engaging in construction engineering field.

　　After signing the agreement, BAC fulfilled the donation obligation in positive, sustained attention to the progress of the project and organized lawyers to provide advice and assistance on engineering construction problems. In December, 2008, the main structure was completed successfully.

　　On January 17, 2009, the hope primary school passed the quartet acceptance of the building unit, supervision unit, construction unit and design unit.

　　After completion of the project, the BAC arbitrator, Gao Qilin, the chairman of Beijing Qiushi Construction Cost Technology Co., Ltd., who sustained attention to and supported the help build project voluntarily took the audit work of the project. In February 2009, Mr. Gao personally led a team and arrived at the site to guide the audit work. The audit work was finished on March 19, 2009 and BAC Qiushi Construction Cost Technology Co., Ltd issued the settlement review. On April 10, 2009, the donation unit, the building unit, the construction unit and the construction cost consultation unit jointly signed the Review Decision Sheet on the Budget/ Settlement of Basal Construction Project, and determined the finalized amount is 944,215 Yuan.

　　In view of the added items by negotiation to lead the original donation was inadequate, BAC held a special committee meeting that had passed to increase donations from the non-profit foundation for the gap, furthermore, passed a decision to provide further assistance for the disaster area through other ways. So far, the total donations of the BAC arbitrators and staff and the institutions were up to 1,246,981.66 Yuan. Now, the project cost has paid fully and the hope primary school has been put into use, where a commemorative ceremony will be co-hosted by the end of May 2009, which has been tentatively agreed.

　　At the same time, according to the proposal of Mianyang Arbitration Commission and consulting with the related arbitration institutions in Sichuan Province, the representatives will organize volunteer expert group to hold training activities about arbitration practice, arbitrator’s professional ethnics and similar topics when attending the ceremony in Sichuan.

　　Disaster breeds hope, and struggle creates future. At the moment of the first anniversary, we have watched that the red flag is still flying! We believe that the rebuilt school from the ruin will have more lasting life and more brilliant tomorrow!

Editor: Jiang Lili

The opening of BAC training courses on International Commercial Arbitration

　　The Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC) training course on International Commercial Arbitration was officially begun at the International Conference Hall on May 23, 2009. The purpose of this training was to enable the trainees to rapidly improve their arbitrational or agential abilities in a relatively short time for resolving international commercial disputes.

　　As a matter of fact, the level of Chinese international commercial legal services is not corresponding to the role as a big trading nation. Due to inexperience both of international commercial arbitration and international litigation, China’s enterprises and individuals often suffer serious losses in international commercial disputes. Regarding this, the course specially invited Prof. Liangyi Yang and Lawyer Ruohua Zheng, who are knowledgeable, experienced, and with international prestige and influence in this area, as the lecturers. Based on the practical operations, they are providing the teaching focused on English arbitration laws, English contract laws, English and American evidence laws for six days.

Editor: Zhang Haoliang