Speakers at a webinar on Monday said major reforms of dispute resolution legislation are needed for settlement of non-adversarial disputes in the country, thus creating more congenial atmosphere for businesses.
They also suggested greater participation of relevant communities in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and developing a strong ADR framework in this regard.
They made the suggestions while speaking at a webinar on 'Dispute Resolution Legislation of Bangladesh: Required Reforms' organised by the Bangladesh International Arbitration Centre (BIAC) in association with its partner organisation Rahman & Rabbi Legal Law Chambers.
Chairman of the BIAC Board Mahbubur Rahman and Chief Executive Officer of the BIAC Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali, among others, took part in the webinar, said a press release.
In his speech, Mr Mahbubur Rahman said BIAC's aim is to appreciate the issue of required reforms of the dispute resolution legislation spectrum of Bangladesh to help reduce the congestion of over 3.8 million under-trial cases in the courts.
"It will also attract more Foreign Direct Investment for overall growth of our economy and facilitate the ease of doing better business, while we are graduating to a developing country by 2026," said Mr Rahman, also president of International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB).
Mr Muhammad A. (Rumee) Ali underscored the need for enforcing commercial contracts between parties and overcoming credibility issue of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) among the business community and the legal fraternity.
He also said the ADR is the way out to resolve business disputes in view of a huge backlog of cases in the country's judicial system and the disproportionate number of trying judges and under trial cases.
Government officials, corporate executives, lawyers, academicians, accredited mediators, ADR experts, bankers and business leaders also took part in the webinar.
Md Mahbubor Rahman, Advising Partner of Rahman & Rabbi Legal, delivered welcome address on behalf of his organisation.
He called for further cooperation between the law firms and BIAC in the field of training and research on ADR.
Taking part in the discussion, panellist Barrister Fida M. Kamal, former attorney general of Bangladesh and senior advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, highlighted the inadequacies of the existing arbitration law and insisted on adhering to more consensual dispute resolution methods like mediation and conciliation.
Mohammad Shahidul Haque, former senior secretary to the legislative and parliamentary affairs division, said, "With government-NGO partnership, we should take united move and steps to create a congenial atmosphere wherein parties find recourse beyond the purview of formal adjudication, ensuring inexpensive and speedy relief through ADR."
Prof Dr. Farhana Helal Mehtab, associate dean, Faculty of Humanities & Social Science, Daffodil International University, Prof Dr. Rumana Islam, Department of Law, University of Dhaka, Ms. Elena Fontanelli, deputy counsel, ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris, France, director of BIAC M A Akmall Hossain Azad also spoke at the webinar.
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