Bangladesh Bank team reports on 2nd International ADR Conference in Bangkok recently

Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre (BIAC) led a delegation of 17 participants from Bangladesh to Bangkok, Thailand to the 2nd International ADR Conference organized by Thailand Arbitration Center (THAC) and supported by BIAC from 13-14 May 2019. The participants represented Bangladesh Bank, The City Bank Limited, Janata Bank, Krishi Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, IDCOL, AB Bank Limited and legal experts. Mr. Mohammed Shahidul Haque, Senior Secretary, Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs presented a keynote on “New Innovations in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) by Arbitral Institutions”.

Leading the five member delegation from Bangladesh Bank Ms. Rahima Khatun, Deputy Director, Foreign Exchange Operation Department, Bangladesh Bank submitted a report to BIAC recently on the event including her observation on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). We are pleased to share our brief observation on the report below:

• The officer has given an insight on ADR along with its prevalent practice and procedure in Bangladesh. She has also enumerated a few challenges and opportunities of ADR in the country. She visualized challenges as among other things, disconnection between rules and reality, non cooperation of the lawyers, resistance from the bar, lack of public awareness, need for correction of legal shortcomings, risks to quality control, lack of funding, etc.
•  Among opportunities, she has identified: speed, expertise, privacy, creating a better climate for resolution, expediting procedures, enhancing flexibility, providing more control over the outcome, costs to the parties, costs to the State and saving of court time etc.
•  She referred to the Keynote Speech delivered at the Conference by Mr. M. Shahidul Haque, Senior Secretary, Legislative and Parliamentary Division where he had urged upon BIAC to work on ADR with Law Commission Bangladesh which can be an effective and efficient tool to attract FDI in Bangladesh.
•  She has rightly said that the disputants want decision and that too as quickly as possible. As the problem of over-burdened courts has been faced all over the world, new solutions were searched. Various tribunals were the answer to the search. In Bangladesh, there are so many tribunals, however, even after the formation of these tribunals, the administration of justice has not become speedy.
•  She has put forward some suggestions which include attitudinal change towards ADR resulting in active implementation of ADR and the burden on the courts reduced. She has emphasized the need for instilling awareness as imperative to bring in a change in the attitudes.
• She opined that arbitral awards should be made binding on the parties and no appeal to the court should be allowed unless it is arrived at fraudulently or if it is against public policy.
• She has also suggested that legal education and law schools should focus on the arts of conciliation and negotiation and not merely on litigation. Lawyer client interests should also be molded towards a primary focus on ADR failing which the recourse should be towards litigation.