Abu Dhabi: The UAE expects to pass a draft federal arbitration law this year which will help boost investor confidence and strengthen the country's investment environment, Minister of Economy Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri said here at a conference yesterday.
"Arbitration is of major importance in attracting investments and achieving the development and stability of the national economy," Al Mansouri said.
"I do hope we will be able to pass it by the end of this year. We will try to move on it as fast as possible. It will help prevent accumulation of cases in courts," he added.
"Arbitration is one of the key instruments to resolve disputes amicably and thus enhance investor confidence in the economy's fundamentals to support businesses."
He said the country is in the process of developing about 14 regulations, which include a law on foreign investment, a companies law and a competition law.
The draft law addresses arbitration procedures, confidentiality, and the selection of arbitrators.
It will also cover Islamic arbitration and will be the first to govern arbitration and reconciliation procedures nationwide.
Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have arbitration centres — the Dubai International Arbitration Centre and the Abu Dhabi Conciliation and Arbitration Centre — that deal with cases on an emirate level.
The draft federal law of arbitration is taking feedback from these centres as well as the International Islamic Centre for Reconciliation and Arbitration.
Separately, Al Mansouri hailed Dubai World's settlement with its creditors and called it a "very important, very critical step in the right direction."
He said the settlement comes as a reassurance "of what we've said before about this issue... we have a system, but we need to be given time to resolve these kind of issues."
Dubai World, one of the emirate's three main state-owned business groups, said on May 20 that it had reached an agreement with its main creditor group to restructure $23.5 billion (Dh86.2 billion) of liabilities.
Dubai World said it will pay $4.4 billion of the loans in five years and another $10 billion over eight years.
Dubai's government, which pledged $1.5 billion in March for the restructuring, will convert $8.9 billion of its loans to Dubai World into equity.
Are you familiar with the arbitration law? Do you think it is a better way of resolving disputes?
