With a modern arbitration law and world-class legal infrastructure, Qatar is well on its way to serve as an arbitration hub in the region, an official of the Qatar International Centre of Conciliation and Arbitration (Qicca) has said.
Qicca board member for international relations Sheikh Dr Thani bin Ali al-Thani said Qatar has laid the groundwork for it to provide the necessary human resources and services needed for arbitration.
“Not only do we have Law No 2 of 2017 or Qatar’s Arbitration Law but we also have institutions like the Qatar Financial Centre, the Ministry of Justice, the courts and special courts that could address any legal issues in different sectors,” Sheikh Thani told Gulf Times.
He added: “Qatar Airways’ wide network connects Qatar to many countries in Europe, the Americas, and even Asia, so people need not go far to other centres abroad such as Singapore, for example.”
Qicca counsellor Dr Minas Khatchadourian said: “Arbitration is a service, which is not only based on professional arbitrators who come here and do their work, but you also need to think about all the related services in a place where access by air is easy.
“Qatar has a good network of hotels and other accommodation. You also have a number of readily available staff like translators and secretaries, and at the same time, we have a modern arbitration law.”
He added: “If you have an obsolete arbitration law, it will not attract people to this specific place. You also have the support of institutions like the Qatar Financial Centre or the Ministry of Justice and they are helping promote Qatar to the international community.”
Sheikh Thani also stressed that Qicca renewed last month its partnership with the Centre of Continuing Education (CCE) at Qatar University (QU) in providing training programmes in the different facets of arbitration.
Just last week, Qicca and CCE launched the second phase of its professional certificate programme for training arbitrators under the title ‘The Concept of Commercial Arbitration and its Legal Nature’. The six-part training programme will run until the end of 2018.
