Speech for Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman, Governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre and Vice Chairman of the Central Bank of the UAE at the 12th International Arbitration Day Conference
Your Excellency, Dr Hadef Jua'an Al Daheri, the UAE Minister of Justice,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Morning,
It’s my pleasure to join you today at the start of the 12th International Arbitration Day Conference.
I would like to welcome all of you, who have come from across the world, to Dubai, to attend this conference.
This conference is a great opportunity to discuss some of the critical issues facing the development of arbitration, mediation and dispute resolution and its critical importance for the commercial world.
Dispute resolution mechanisms have always been key to the success and competitiveness of an economy. But, quick and efficient dispute resolution is particularly important now, at a time when the global economy is facing challenges.
Time is money! Every businessman knows this! When it comes to dispute resolution, the faster it is, the quicker a business can move on. However, given the increasing complexity of international business, and the rising volume of commercial disputes, traditional judicial systems may not always be able to offer speedy dispute resolution. Therefore, the availability of alternate forums for resolving commercial disputes is vitally important.
Recognising these critical business needs, we in the Dubai International Financial Centre have created a world class infrastructure for arbitration. In a joint venture with the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Dubai International Financial Centre has set up the DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre.
The establishment of the Arbitration Centre is part of DIFC’s strategy to develop Dubai into a leading international dispute resolution centre with particular emphasis on international arbitration.
From a very early stage, we have worked on developing a strong legal foundation for arbitration. Firs, we created an Arbitration Law based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration.
Secondly, we created Arbitration and Mediation Rules for the DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre by adapting the London Court of International Arbitration’s Rules. This made them universally applicable and compatible with both civil and common law systems. This was done with the intention of providing the international business community, lawyers and arbitrators a comprehensive and modern set of arbitration rules and procedures.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Before I speak further on our plans for the development of arbitration, I would like to place the Arbitration Centre in the larger context of the development of DIFC. The Arbitration Centre is part of a comprehensive industry ecosystem that DIFC is creating to develop financial and capital markets.
Since our inception in 2004, we have developed an independent jurisdiction based on common law, an independent regulator, an independent courts system, a world-class physical infrastructure and a whole array of supporting institutions and services for the financial and capital market industries. We have also developed a financial exchange, which just recently was rebranded as Nasdaq Dubai.
As a financial centre, DIFC is unique in that it has all the key elements of a financial industry ecosystem. Each of these elements has been modeled on world-class frameworks and systems and meets the highest global standards.
DIFC has been created as an onshore capital market. Businesses establishing in DIFC enjoy tremendous financial benefits. They do not have to pay any taxes on income or profits. A local partner is not required for doing business and there is full repatriation of capital and profits.
These initiatives have enabled DIFC to develop into a full-fledged global financial centre in a very short period of time. Today, many global consultancies acknowledge DIFC as a prominent rival to established centres like London, New York and Hong Kong. More than 750 companies have set up operations in DIFC, including several global firms such as Standard Chartered, HSBC, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Man Investments, Mellon Global Investments, Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Zurich.
To come back to the role of arbitration in the development of a comprehensive industry eco-system, arbitration will continue to be a key focus of DIFC as it continues to evolve its legal infrastructure. Apart from developing the infrastructure for arbitration, we feel it is important to raise awareness about the value of arbitration. The economic value of arbitration is significant, but it is often underestimated.
We need to communicate the benefits that arbitration can bring to businessmen, companies, commercial outfits, governments and indeed, customers. I have already talked about the greater speed with which arbitration can resolve disputes. Costs are another key issue. Apart from the advantages of cost-effectiveness, knowing how much an arbitration process costs is of great benefit to businesses for the purposes of budgeting and balancing books.
However, there could be much more that we can do in fine-tuning our arbitration mechanisms and institutions to bring greater benefits to businesses. We strongly believe that arbitration institutions need to be dynamic and evolve according to the changing needs of businesses. DIFC will be working closely with LCIA to evolve our Arbitration Centre so that we can meet the constantly changing needs of the industry.
In fact, our plan for developing Dubai into a leading international arbitration centre goes beyond the infrastructure. We seek to create a vibrant environment for a complete arbitration community to flourish. We are keen to invite arbitrators, litigators, lawyers and other dispute resolution professionals from around the world to be part of the arbitration community in Dubai.
In the run up to the IBA’s annual conference in Dubai in 2011, I am sure you will have many opportunities to explore what Dubai has to offer.
The 2011 conference will be significant in that it will be the first time in the Association’s history that the IBA Annual Conference will be held in the Middle East.
I look forward to seeing you again in two year’s time, if not sooner, and I wish each of you a productive conference today.
Thank You very Much
