The Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) has participated in the 7th East Africa International Arbitration Conference (EAIAC) held on August 29-30 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The conference, which was held under the theme "Government Contracting and Investment Disputes: Lessons for States and Investors", saw a participation of more than 250 attendees from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, and Ghana.
HE Sheikh Thani bin Ali bin Saud al-Thani, board member for international relations at QICCA and Qatar’s Representative in ICC Court of Arbitration, attended the event and delivered a research paper on Islamic finance, types, nature, characteristics and how to avoid disputes that arising from as well as ways of settlement according to Shariah.
HE Sheikh Thani said that the value of contracts of Islamic finance is estimated to $2.5trn at the end of 2019, noting that these figures are expected to reach $3.8trn in 2022.
He also noted that other means can have a positive impact on decreasing disputes such as resolution and reconciliation.
The QICCA board member said that Qatar has joined the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, known as the Singapore Convention on Mediation.
During the sessions of the conference, HE Sheikh Thani informed attendees on the expertise of Qatar in Islamic finance as well as Malaysia's experiment, in addition to experiments of the non-Islamic country such as Singapore.
He also stressed the importance of Islamic banking which represented 75% of transactions, while the Islamic instruments represented 15% and Islamic takaful contracts 10%.
Delegates included private investors, government departments, legal practitioners, judiciaries and arbitration professionals. Expert speakers have included attorney generals, government ministers, and arbitration professionals (both regional and international).
Dr Minas Khatchadourian, general counsel, QICCA, delivered a presentation on "Investment by Sovereign Wealth Funds and International Arbitration".
In the discussion, he said that the world's sovereign wealth investments will reach $15trn by 2020, noting that this value represented 25% of the total value of assets that are managed globally.
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