We previously blogged about the Myanmar government’s decision to sign up to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“New York Convention“) (see post here). In that post, we examined how in light of the investment regime and (domestic) arbitration laws of Myanmar, the New York Convention would be an important piece in the legal framework and would provide comfort to foreign investors (and their domestic counterparts) who wished to have their commercial disputes arbitrated outside of Myanmar and have their arbitral awards enforced in Myanmar (see here).

There is now official confirmation that Myanmar acceded to the New York Convention on 16 April 2013 and that the convention is expected to enter into force in Myanmar on 15 July 2013 (see UNCITRAL’s New York Convention Status page here).

However, we had noted that Myanmar’s Arbitration Act 1944 only provides for domestic arbitration and does not provide a framework for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. We anticipate that the Arbitration Act 1944 will either have to be revised or a new international arbitration act enacted in order to make the New York Convention operative. It is still unclear when such an act will be enacted in Myanmar. 

We are hopeful that an appropriate international arbitration framework for Myanmar will be in place before 15 July 2013 and will keep our readers updated accordingly.