Sri Lanka’s potential to become an ADR centre in the region
While Sri Lanka will be entering into a number of freetrade agreements in the months to come, alternate dispute resolution (ADR) will play a key role and Sri Lanka has the potential to become the centre for ADR in the region, says President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
He made these remarks while attending the ‘Symposium on Commercial Mediation’ held in Colombo on Tuesday.
“Sri Lanka will be entering into a number of free trade agreements (FTAs) in months to come. We have established one with Singapore, about to finalise one with Thailand, discussing with India to upgrade the existing agreement and there are talks ongoing with Bangladesh. ADR will be important with all these FTAs and we have to ensure that Sri Lanka has the potential to be the centre for ADR in the region,” he said.
Sri Lanka can match everything related to arbitration and dispute resolution with Singapore except for their costs. “There is a vacuum on dispute resolution in this part of the region where Sri Lanka can move in quickly and fill the gap,” he added while assuring that if those in the legal services want to learn the laws in new fields, the government will help with funding.
He also mentioned that ADR and arbitration has a long way to go in Sri Lanka. “Sri Lanka has to find ways to adjust to the process of arbitration and mediation. There needs to be a change of culture where disputes can be resolved in the shortest possible time. People are embedded to the old concept of the trial court may it be a domestic inquiry, people want to follow the same procedure.”
If Sri Lanka is to succeed as an outward looking economy, dispute resolution is one of the areas of importance. “When you look at ease of doing business or competitiveness, we fail badly in dispute resolution whether in courts or institutions. People need to know that in business time is money,” he stressed.
Mr. Wickremesinghe noted that a new legislation will replace the Colombo Port City to make it a Colombo Financial Zone with jurisdiction for offshore activity. “The new law has been drafted by Shearman and Sterling and we will see the light of day before the end of this year.”