On 5 November, the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) was officially launched by Singapore's Senior Minister for Law and Education, who described mediation as the “third jewel” in the crown of Singapore’s legal services landscape, alongside arbitration and international litigation.
SIMI, which has a partnership relationship with the International Mediation Institute (IMI), was founded by and is housed at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. It is the fruition of a recommendation by the International Commercial Mediation Working Group, appointed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Singapore's Ministry of Law.
As a professional standards body, SIMI will not itself conduct mediation sessions but will provide users with tools to make basic decisions on using mediation and choosing a suitable mediator. More details on SIMI's remit can be found here.