A. INTRODUCTION

1. A Notice of Arbitration was sent by a letter dated 29 June 2000 by Helen Yeo & Partners on behalf of Yaung Chi 00 Trading Pte. Ltd. ("YCO" or "the Claimant"), a company incorporated in Singapore, to the Managing Director of Myanmar FoodstuffIndustries ("MFI"), an agency of the Union of Myanmar Ministry ofIndustry ("the Ministry"). This was followed by a second letter dated 31 August 2000, addressed to the Government of the Union of Myanmar ("Myanmar" or "the Respondent"). By a letter dated 28 February 2001, the President of the International Court of Justice was requested by the Claimant to appoint an arbitral tribunal.

2. By a letter dated 16 May 2001, His Excellency M. Gilbert Guillaume, President of the International Court of Justice, acknowledged receipt of the Notice of Arbitration. Acting in accordance with Article X(4) of the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments of 15 December 1987 (hereafter "the 1987 ASEAN Agreement"), I the Parties to the dispute having failed to agree within three months on a suitable body for arbitration, the President of the International Court as the Appointing Authority responded to the Claimant's request by making the required appointments. Specifically the President appointed Mr. James Crawford (Australia), Whewell Professor of International Law in the University of Cambridge; M. Francis Delon (France), a Member of the Conseil d'Etat, and Mr. Sompong Sucharitkul (Thailand), Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Law at the Golden Gate University Law School, San Francisco, to constitute the Tribunal. The Members agreed among themselves that Professor Sucharitkul would be the President of the Tribunal. Mr. Christopher Jones of the Golden Gate University Law School acted as the Secretary to the Tribunal.

3. At the first meeting of the Tribunal with the Parties for preliminary procedural consultations, held in Bangkok on 1 September 2001, the Parties confirmed that the Tribunal was properly constituted. In the exercise of its power to control its own procedure, the Tribunal decided to apply, mutatis mutandis, the Arbitration (Additional Facility) Rulh of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to the proceedings.