Remarks by Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong SC at the Launch of the ICSID Singapore Office

26 August 2026 Posted in Speeches

Your Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I. Introduction

1. I would like to wish all of you a very good evening.

2. It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you this evening to this launch, together with the Secretary-General of ICSID Martina Polasek. This will be ICSID’s first overseas office, outside of its headquarters in Washington D.C., right here in Singapore. We are so glad to be able to share the occasion with all of you this evening, and we thank you for honouring us with your presence.

3. Just a year ago, on the sidelines of Singapore Convention Week 2025, the ICSID Secretary-General and I signed a Letter of Intent to formalise this very undertaking, and that follows several meetings we had in D.C.

4. What began as a shared ambition on paper has, tonight, become a reality on the ground.

5. I am delighted that we have moved from intent to implementation in a year.

II. Singapore, ICSID, and a rules-based world order

6. Singapore has been a Contracting State to the ICSID Convention since we ratified it on 14 October 1968. That was just two years after ICSID was established, and three years after Singapore became independent.

7. Joining ICSID was part of Singapore’s strategy to attract much needed foreign investment. That is a strategy that remains relevant then, as it is now today, many years later. Adopting the Convention assured foreign investors that Singapore was willing to resolve disputes about their investments in Singapore through an independent and neutral international institution and that Singapore was committed to respecting the international rule of law.

8. Today, credible and neutral multilateral institutions for resolving disputes, like ICSID, are more important than ever before.

9. The rules-based multilateral order is under real strain. Trade relations between major economies have grown more contested. Long-standing arrangements that underpinned international trade and investment are being tested almost everyday. Investors and States alike are operating with much less certainty and predictability than before.

10. For Singapore, as a small state and one of the most open economies in the world, our commitment to the international rule of law is not a matter of preference, but one of necessity, and in many cases, of survival.

11. We depend on a stable, rules-based global order, and we have no interest in a world where outcomes are decided mainly by size and might rather than by law.

12. This is why we continue to invest heavily in institutions like ICSID, which give life to that order.

III. ICSID’s continued relevance amidst ISDS reforms and the establishment of the Multilateral Investment Tribunal

13. ICSID has been, and continues to be, one of the leading institutions for international investment dispute settlement (“ISDS”) since its inception in 1966.

14. As of 2025, there were 1,085 arbitration and conciliation cases registered under the ICSID Convention and the Additional Facility Rules. In 2025 alone, it registered 63 new cases, which is one of the highest in its history.

15. Ironically, this period of increased demand for ISDS services has also coincided with increased challenges and doubts as to the legitimacy of the current ISDS arbitration framework, which has provided the impetus for the ongoing work of UNCITRAL Working Group III on ISDS reform.

16. Amongst the reform proposals under consideration is the proposal for the proposed establishment of the Multilateral Investment Tribunal (“MIT”), which will serve as a permanent standing adjudicatory body for international investment disputes.

17. As I mentioned in my remarks yesterday at the UNCITRAL Academy Conference, I believe that even with the establishment of the MIT, there is room to accommodate the different dispute settlement preferences and the needs of each individual State.

18. For the segment of users who continue to prefer recourse to arbitration at the first instance for their ISDS matters, ICSID, as well as other arbitral tribunals, can and should continue to administer these cases. Where necessary and appropriate, parties may appeal these arbitral decisions to the MIT.

19. Thus, the reform efforts would need to ensure a common institutional architecture, as well as interoperability between existing institutions like ICSID, as well as the eventual MIT, so the link and interoperability must remain. This will enable appeals against arbitral awards to be seamlessly and efficiently transmitted to the MIT.

20. Given its longstanding role in supporting ISDS arbitrations, we believe that ICSID has a wealth of expertise and resources that can be leveraged to ensure such institutional interoperability. This would go a long way to building an ISDS ecosystem that is credible, accessible, and perhaps importantly for the future, fit for purpose.

21. As I announced yesterday, Singapore will put forward its bid to host the MIT. In this regard, we look forward to working closely with ICSID, in consultation with its governing body.

IV. ICSID Singapore Office

22. Let me say a few words about the Singapore office that we will shortly unveil. We are very honoured to have been chosen as the location of ICSID’s first staffed office outside of its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and to serve as ICSID’s hub and base for the region.

23. To sum up Singapore’s value proposition, we have:

(1) First, a sound dispute resolution ecosystem – one that we have nurtured and has matured for some years now – and a trusted reputation for upholding the rule of law;

(2) Second, an open and collaborative legal services market that welcomes practitioners from all over the world; and

(3) Third, a track record of shaping, harnessing, and carefully promoting the international legal frameworks that underpin this work, such as the Singapore Convention on Mediation, now with 23 State Parties and growing.

24. There is also a simple geographical logic to making Singapore ICSID’s regional base.

25. Being located here allows ICSID to be closer to the governments and investors that it serves right across Southeast Asia, as well as the broader region. This proximity translates into a genuine understanding of the region’s dynamics and needs, through active as well as on-the-ground engagement, and the building of relationships. Like Martina said to me a short while ago, it makes a difference to be in the same time zone. This will allow ICSID to better serve the region’s needs in investment dispute prevention and resolution, especially at a time when the volume as well as the complexity of such disputes in the region continue to grow.

26. The ICSID Singapore Office will be based at the World Bank Group Singapore Office at 10 Marina Boulevard, together with all four other World Bank Group Organisations.

27. It will also separately maintain satellite premises at Maxwell Chambers Suites, putting it in close proximity to world-class hearing facilities, and other arbitral tribunals and legal practices that make up Singapore’s dispute resolution ecosystem.

28. The Office will be a most welcome addition to the already well-established presence of the World Bank Group in Singapore. Since it first established a presence in Singapore in 1999, the World Bank Group has expanded its infrastructure and operations in Singapore significantly. It created its first Infrastructure and Development Hub here and now serves as the World Bank Group Organisations’ regional hub for Asia or East Asia and the Pacific, as the case may be.

29. I am therefore very confident that the ICSID Singapore Office too will grow in time and expand, as it leverages Singapore’s location, institutions, people and networks.

V. Conclusion

30. Let me close my speech this evening by thanking a few people. First, the ICSID Secretary-General. Thank you very much for the years of dialogue that we have had. It has always been constructive. You have always been forward-looking. Your deep compassion and sense of how to uphold the rule of law have been one of your most compelling features, and we resonate deeply with that.

31. To the ICSID team – we warmly welcome you to Singapore. We wish you a good time in Singapore, as well as a time of productivity and hard work, but you can always count on us as your partners. The most important question that I asked them earlier today was whether they know where the best food was around the offices. They say they knew, and that is how I knew they have completely broken in, and become part of Singapore.

32. I would also like to thank the World Bank Group colleagues, for your trust and partnership, and the desire to bring this office to life.

33. Let me also thank our partners and stakeholders across all of Singapore’s legal and dispute resolution community for your continued support. Many of you are in this room this evening, and we thank you very much because this would not be workable in silo nor in vacuo. It is only workable hand in hand as a partnership in this broader ecosystem.

34. And finally, to all Excellencies and all our invited distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for being present this evening. Thank you for making the time to be here.

35. Secretary-General, I am confident that this office will, in time, feel less like an outpost and more like a home away from home, and that ICSID will find in Singapore not just a base of operations, but a genuine partner and friend.

36. I really very much look forward to watching this office grow – not only in the number of cases it administers but in the depth of its engagement and relations with this region, and its contribution to building an ISDS ecosystem that is credible, accessible, and fit for the times ahead.

37. Thank you very much.

Last updated on 26 August 2026