The Qatar International Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) at Qatar Chamber (QC) is set to issue its new rules in April, amid a growing demand for arbitration usage in Qatar, QICCA Board Member for International Relations Dr. Sheikh Thani bin Ali Al Thani said yesterday.
Sheikh Thani, who inaugurated the panel discussions for the two-day 4th World Conference on International Arbitration, said that QICCA’s new rules of conciliation and arbitration which will be issued in April, correspond with the latest international standards, trends and best practices in the field of international arbitration.
He said Qatar has strived to establish an integrated system for international commercial arbitration, from the issuance of Law No.13 of 1990 on the Civil and Commercial Procedures, followed by Qatar’s accession to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 in 2003, the adoption of the new version of UNCITRAL Rules in 2010, and the issuance of Qatar’s Arbitration Law in 2017.
Sheikh Thani stressed that QICCA, which has become the first destination for arbitration in Qatar, has issued over 40 arbitration cases with a value of nearly QR2bn in 2021.
In her presentation during a panel discussion, Partner at Pinsent Masons law firm in Qatar Pamela McDonald reiterated that arbitration usage will significantly rise in the country amid Qatar’s continuous economic expansion.
She added that QICCA, which has been seeing a year-on-year increase in its caseload, has also shown its responsiveness to modern arbitration practice by releasing its new rules.
“In the last 10 years, QICCA has become a highly regarded, embedded and the central element of modern arbitration in Qatar, an alternative way to resolve disputes and promoting a culture of commercial arbitration. Economic research suggests that countries that promote arbitration benefit from increased foreign direct investment and there is a direct correlation between a country’s arbitral policy and its GDP. Arbitration has also shown to lower consumer prices as a result of increased trade and competition,” she said.
McDonald added: “Looking ahead towards the next eight years on the journey to achieve the 2030 vision, we should expect and welcome an increase in arbitration usage in Qatar. One reason is the extensive investment in the energy sector, as Qatar moves from the FIFA World Cup 2022 related infrastructure. Both the energy and infrastructure sectors are high uses of arbitration, and so we can anticipate an enormous increase in the volume of arbitral disputes in these sectors in the coming years”.
Another main scope for increase in arbitral usage will also come from the inevitable increase in the number of SMEs which will expand from international markets into Qatar, said McDonald.
“There is also scope for increased arbitration as a result of the commitments made by governments under the Paris agreement to achieve nationally determined carbon emissions targets. To ensure an energy transition takes place means we can anticipate in Qatar the advent of a considerable number of new projects involving new technologies, new processes, and new commercial partnerships. There is clearly potential for disputes to arise, as a result of this tilt towards a global net zero ambition. And these disputes are best resolved by expert decision makers using arbitration,” she added.
McDonald went on to stress the need to encourage arbitration agreements into the standard form contracts of administrative public bodies tasked with delivering Qatar’s national vision to promote arbitration culture.
She added that there are more government bodies now which are including arbitration agreements in their suit of contracts such as the Public Works Authority (Ashgal), Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, QatarRail, Kahramaa, and QatarGas in many of their projects.
Meanwhile, earlier in his speech, Sheikh Thani also acknowledged the contributions made by the late Dr. Minas Khatchadourian in Qatar’s arbitration system. Khatchadourian has served as the general legal counsel of QICCA for several years.
