ACICA, along with the Australian Attorney-General's Department and the International Legal Services Advisory Council (ILSAC), held an Arbitration Forum and VIP lunch­eon for interested Australian and international commercial dispute resolution parties at the Shanghai Expo's Australian Pavilion last Friday.

"It went really well. I was really pleased," Jones told Lawyers Weekly.

"The mix of people there was really good and ... broadly speaking, the reaction was very positive. It was a great start to what will obviously need to be a continued effort in pro­moting Australia as a neutral venue to the Chinese. It's just a step down the path, but a very effective one."

The forum and luncheon were attended by numerous senior Chinese lawyers, judges and in-house counsel who were treated to Australian delicacies and speeches from Jones, Solicitor-General Stephen Gageler and Federal Court judge Patrick Keane.

"[Our] speeches were designed to bring to the attention of quite a large audience of Chinese [lawyers] the fact that Australia is open for business in terms of international arbi­tration," said Jones.

"We also had a group discussion on how to more effec­tively promote Australia as a neutral venue for Chinese par­ties and some very good ideas came out of that, which we are intending to follow up."

One such idea is enlisting a senior Chinese lawyer, who will be charged with promoting Australia as an arbitration destination.