More than three months after the first group of candidates took a competency exam in the field of commercial arbitration, officials in the Commerce Ministry said that they will announce that about 30 of the 45 have passed, making results available this evening.
Mao Thora, secretary of state at the Commerce Ministry, said yesterday that of the 45 candidates who submitted to taking the exam, about 30 passed both the arbitration practices and commercial law sections required to register with the ministry as an arbitrator.
“The announcement is late since [the exams were] submitted in Khmer language, and needed to be translated into English and sent to Singapore to be scored,” he said.
The exam was originally meant to be taken last September as a newly mandated requirement in the establishment of the National Arbitration Center. However, the 54 would-be candidates staged a boycott, saying the exam was not called for in the adopted regulations of the center’s establishment.
In December last year, Prime Minister Hun Sen signed an order to enter the exam into practice–still, nine refused.
Professional arbitrators are charged with solving commercial disputes with the domestic community.
Those who did not pass the exam and the nine candidates who refused to take it will have an opportunity next month to retake the exam, said Mr Thora.
“Those who have passed cannot start their work immediately and will have to wait for the second round of exams, and for them to be graded,” he said, adding that because fewer people will be taking the exam, it should take less time.
Om Dararith, director of legal affairs at the Commerce Ministry, said candidates as of this evening can go to the ministry or the Royal Academy for the Judicial Processions to check their results.
“Those who passed can register their name to the arbitration center,” he said. “In this exam, we wanted to get good potential candidates who have good knowledge in order to make people trust the institution and its capacity.”
