Jaitley stresses on credible dispute resolution mechanism among BRICS

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday called for a larger economic and trade cooperation, including goods and services, among the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) member nations for achieving higher growth in the globally challenging environment.

While delivering the valedictory address at a conference on 'International Arbitration in BRICS: Challenges, Opportunities and Road ahead' in the national capital here, Jaitley said, "There is need for having a credible international dispute resolution mechanism among BRICS countries to resolve all trade-related issues among them and there should be effective system in place to quickly implement the arbitration awards."

He asked the BRICS nations to set-up a Task Force of experts and offices from BRICS nations to explore the possibilities for setting-up world class Arbitration Centres in these countries among others.

"In this task force, they can debate all the issues and areas of concern which were debated and deliberated in three technical sessions of the one day Conference, he added.

Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Shaktikanta Das, Secretary for Department of Economic Affairs, said despite globally economy facing various challenges, it is the emerging economies that are carrying the world's growth on their shoulders by performing much better than developed counties on the economic front.

He said the existing international arbitration regime while taking any decision should consider the social welfare and development policies of the developing and emerging economies and not only the private commercial requirements.

He pointed out that India in its Model Draft of Bilateral Investment treaty has a provision that international investors have to first exhaust the option of local judicial system at least for five years before going to international arbitration mechanism.

The one day Conference was jointly organized by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India along with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA).