Nepal to participate in SAARC Arbitration Council meeting

Nepal will participate in the SAARC Arbitration Council meeting to be held in Islamabad, Pakistan, on November 21-22.

Representatives from seven members of SAARC including Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives will attend the meeting that will discuss ways and means to promote growth and effective functioning of national arbitration institutions within the region.

The main objective of the forum is to create conditions conducive to fostering greater investment by investors of one member country in another member state, and provide a legal framework within the region for fair and efficient settlement through conciliation and arbitration of commercial, investment and other such disputes as may be referred to the council by agreement.

The SAARC Arbitration Council was aimed at creating conditions conducive to fostering greater investment in the region as a forum for settlement of commercial, investment and other disputes by conciliation and arbitration by providing fair, inexpensive and expeditious arbitration in the region.

The seven members of SAARC — Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives — had signed the Agreement for Establishment of SAARC Arbitration Council at the 13th SAARC Summit held in Dhaka in 2005.

According to it, all the members of SAARC will arrange rectification of the agreement from their federal cabinets in the first phase, and then the SAARC secretariat will announce the enforcement of the agreement by issuing a notification.

The SAARC Arbitration Council will be headed by a director general, who shall be from a SAARC state and will be appointed on the principle of alphabetical rotation among the SAARC member states commencing from the member state hosting the council.