The center, a brainchild of the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC), will be the fourth center in the world and the only one in Asia authorized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to settle domain-name disputes in relation to generic top-level domains (gTLDs).

　　"Asia has enjoyed rapid economic growth as well as an increase in Internet users. There is room for the expansion of the business(of resolving domain disputes)," said CIETAC vice chairman Wang Shengchang, quoted by Monday's China Daily.

　　Sources indicate that some 7,000 disputes have been undertaken by the world's other three dispute-settlement centers for top-level domains, namely, the Center for public Resources Institute for Dispute Resolution and the National Arbitration Forum, both inthe U.S., and the Arbitration and Mediation Center under the WorldIntellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

　　"The first year will provide a test ground for our future expansion of business," said Wang. He expected the center to handle between 20 and 200 cases each month in its first year.

　　If the Beijing-Hong Kong project operates smoothly, the center will expand to include arbitration institutions in Asia as a whole.

　　Christopher To, secretary-general of the HKIAC, said the new center would have a competitive edge over the World Intellectual Property Organization due to its new on-line system and its ability to operate in the Chinese language.

　　"As time goes by, traditional arbitration will drop and on-linearbitration will increase," he said. "The younger generation is coming in and they would like to have disputes heard at the click of a button."