08 Sep 2019
The Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) has participated in the 7th East Africa International Arbitration Conference (EAIAC) held on 29 – 30 August 2019 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Sheikh Thani bin Ali bin Saud Al Thani, QICCA’s Board Member for International Relations at the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration and Qatar 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 Islamic sharia .
Sheikh Thani said that value of contracts of Islamic finance is estimated to reach $2.5 trillion at the end of the year 2019, noting that these figures are expected to reach $ 3.8 trillion in 2022.
He also noted that there are other means that can have a positive impact on decreasing disputes such as resolution and reconciliation.
He said that Qatar has recently 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, Sheikh Thani informed attendees on the expertise of Qatar in Islamic finance as well as Malaysia’s experiment, in addition to experiments of non-Islamic country such as Singapore.
He also stressed the importance of Islamic banking which represented 75 percent of transactions, while the Islamic instruments represented 15 percent and Islamic takaful contracts 10 percent.
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.
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.
On the sidelines of the conference, Sheikh Thani met with Kenya Minister of Justice Judge David Maraga and President of Kenya Law Association Alin Wood.
General Counsel of the Qatar International Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration Dr. Minas Khatchadourian delivered a presentation on “Investment by Sovereign Wealth Funds and International Arbitration”. In his discussion, he said that the world’s Sovereign Wealth Investments will reach $15trillion by 2020, noting that this value represented 25 percent of the total value of assets that are managed over the world.
