The new United Nations (UN) treaty on mediation that is named after Singapore will have its signing ceremony in the Republic in August next year.

The Singapore Convention on Mediation - the first UN treaty to carry Singapore's name - will make it easier for mediated settlement agreements to be enforced, giving businesses more assurance that cross-border commercial disputes can be resolved through mediation.

The UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday adopted the UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, and agreed to name it after Singapore, where the signing ceremony will be held next Aug 7.

The Republic played a key role in the negotiations and drafting of the treaty and is expected to be among the Convention's first signatories.

Singapore's Ministry of Law said yesterday that being among the first to sign "will strengthen a signatory's position as a leader in international trade law and will be warmly welcomed by businesses and foreign investors".

Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam said that the Singapore Convention on Mediation will "further cement Singapore's place on the world map for international dispute resolution".

The Convention will address the lack of an effective means to enforce mediated settlement agreements from cross-border commercial disputes. With it, agreements can be more readily enforced by courts of jurisdictions that are contracting parties to the Convention.