Almost a year since he announced that an arbitration bill would have been tabled in the National Assembly before the end of 2021, Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC acknowledges that this has not materialized, and now says that this should be done by August of this year.
On Tuesday on his weekly Facebook programme ‘Issues in the News,’ Nandlall said arbitration is very important for the resolution of commercial disputes in Guyana and that he will be “vigorously pursuing” the enactment of a modern arbitration bill.
To this end the AG said that a draft of the 2022 CARICOM model has already been prepared, which he highlighted as being the most modern arbitration bill in the hemisphere endorsed by CARICOM.
He said, too, that Guyana may be the first country in the Region to be implementing the model.
Noting that not much was accomplished toward the venture last year, Nandlall said that government has since retained a another consultant…”this time one who is experienced and recommended by our partners who are working with us at the level of CARICOM.”
He said that an entire programme is being planned to unfold the arbitration initiative in Guyana which “will be done this year.”
He noted that the initiative will see the involvement of the private sector, the Judiciary, the Bar Association, as far as possible the oil companies, and the input from other important stakeholders; without whom he said the project would not work.
He disclosed, also, that there will be collaboration with international arbitration institutions that will assist with training; and on this point said that an institute from Guadeloupe has already been approached for assistance; and the services of other persons from the international arbitration community and international arbitrators to train the cadre here will be utilized to build the infrastructural capacity needed.
Nandlall said that provision is also being made for certificates-training which will see collaboration with the University of Guyana, “to ensure that we have training programmes that would be of high quality.”
The legal affairs minister said that while the first target will be local in terms of the companies operating here, the vision is a much larger one; which seeks to make Guyana a hub for arbitration for South America, the Caribbean and Latin America.
He noted that crafting arbitration legislation is also “in keeping with our local content objectives…ensuring that arbitrations are not taken overseas…ensuring that arbitrations, in particular relating to the oil and gas sector and other major sections of the country are done right here.”
Nandlall said that while the initial objective will be to make Guyana modern and self-sufficient on the arbitration front, the aim thereafter is to “branch off and market our product across the Region and across South America.”
This he said, must be done with “speed, competence and a high degree of integrity.”
