The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday said The Bahamas is "leveraging all avenues" to establish itself as an international arbitration centre and exploit alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

Elsworth Johnson, minister for financial services, trade and industry and Immigration, addressing the House of Assembly during the mid-year Budget debate, said: “We are leveraging all avenues to highlight that The Bahamas is still the clear choice, even during these uncertain times, for alternative dispute resolution.”

"As we shore up the financial services industry, we see the opportunity to create new opportunities in areas that have long been talked about, but not substantively pursued. We have heard for quite some time that alternative dispute resolution or ADR could provide for new avenues of economic growth and employment. This is yet another initiative in which we have made a conscious decision to invest through capacity building.”

Mr Johnson said his ministry's ADR unit was formed in mid-August 2020 and, within the first six months, has developed a “comprehensive” two-year strategic plan to establish this means for settling commercial and other types of disputes.

The ADR unit will produce an historical analysis of past consultancies and work done in relation to a "permanent court of arbitration", and then continue analytical work on the “international commercial arbitration survey and the international commercial arbitration executive council of The Bahamas".

Mr Johnson added: “The two-year strategic plan also sets out the rationale for establishing The Bahamas as a centre for international arbitration”, which has become an important tool for “economic development".

Advocates for making The Bahamas an international arbitration centre, such as former Bar Association president, Dr Peter Maynard, have long been pushing for legislation that would facilitate the development of a Bahamian arbitration industry.