Considering that:

1. By Procedural Order No. 1 the Tribunal invited the Parties to propose, jointly and by December 8, 2008, a calendar for the filing of the pleadings on the merits.

2. The Parties requested an extension of such deadline to December 15, 2008, and the Tribunal granted the requested extension.

3. On December 15, 2008, the Parties submitted a partial agreement on procedural matters and set forth the issues on which they continue to disagree. A further exchange of communications on such issues took place on December 18 and December 23, 2008.

4. The Parties have failed to agree:

(a) on whether preliminary objections should be granted a separate procedural phase and, if so, whether the Tribunal should decide now a schedule for such jurisdictional phase or wait until after such objections have been raised,

(b) on whether the Parties should receive an equivalent amount of time to prepare the first round of their submissions,

(c) on whether the Parties should engage in a preliminary exchange of documents available to each and on which each intends to rely prior to the presentation of Claimant’s Memorial, and

(d) on whether the International Bar Association Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration (‘IBA Rules’) shall govern evidentiary issues as these arise during the course of the merits proceedings.

5. The Parties have also failed to agree on whether depositions can be ordered in this arbitration but it follows from the Parties’ exchanges on pending matters that the Tribunal does not need at this juncture to decide this issue.