On Sep 2^nd, 2008, ICC-SIAC Conference “Reflections on Diverse issues in international arbitration” was held in Singapore (http://www.cietac.org/NewsFiles/NewsDetail.asp?NewsID=739).

　　On Sep 10^th, 2008, Ms. Aura Soria de Karel, Manager Director of Association for International Arbitration (AIA) and Ms. Yang Hong, her assistant, visited BAC, and Ms. Wang Hongsong, Secretary General of BAC, hosted the guests, and introduced the development of BAC.

　　On Sep 12^th, 2008, organized by Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC), ADR in Asia Conference was held in Hong Kong, and in the conference, the participants mainly discussed the issues such as negotiation and drafting of international and domestic dispute resolution clauses, how the the arbitral tribunals deal with the procedures and evidences, execution of the arbitral awards, development trend of architectural arbitration and how the mediators deal with the contradiction between moral and confidentiality, etc.

　　On Sep 18^th, 2008, jointly organized by BAC and Strauss Dispute Resolution Research Institute, Law School of Pepperdine University in USA, the “Seminar on comparison of practical skills and experiences for mediation between the orient and the west” (Video conference) was held in BAC, with the main issues for comparison of skills that should be applied in the mediation, the traps that should be avoided, as well as opportunities and challenges for China to develop stand-alone mediation (http://www.bjac.org.cn/news/view.asp?id=1512&cataid=1).

　　On Sep 26^th, 2008, working with China Association of Architecture, China International Economic & Trade Arbitration Commission(CIETAC) held a seminar on “Dispute resolution and DB mechanism in construction projects” in Beijing (http://www.cietac.org/NewsFiles/NewsDetail.asp?NewsID=74).

　　During Sep 25^th till 26^th, 2008, organized by Law School of Hu’nan University, the 3^rd China Arbitration Forum was held in Changsha, Hu’nan Province, with over sixty participants from the arbitration and academic communities participating in the forum.

　　At the end of September, 2008, a new feature of “Search in database for laws and regulations” was added on the BAC website, which is an outcome of the cooperation between BAC and Beida Fayi Company. In the future, after logging onto the BAC website, by clicking, users can directly access to the page of search in the database of Beida Fayi, to easily share the resources. Arbitrators from BAC can send E-mails to BAC E-mail addresses (bjac@bjac.org.cn or chenliangyu@bjac.org.cn) to get accounts for more features for searching.

　　On Oct 9^th, 2008, The Peoples’ Bank of China determined to lower the reserve rate for RMB deposits in financial institutions for 0.5% since Oct 15th, 2008, and lower the benchmark interest rates of the 1-year RMB deposits and loans for 0.27% respectively since Oct 9^th, 2008, and adjust the benchmark interest rates for deposits and loans for other terms correspondingly as well.

(Editors: Chen Liangyu and Jiang Qiuju)