The British Virgin Islands (BVI) may have taken the lead for the arbitral process, but secretary general of the Jamaica International Arbitration Centre Limited Dr Christopher Malcolm strongly believes Jamaica will eventually emerge as the space for arbitration in the Caribbean.

“We are saying that if we do it right we will be the centre for arbitration in the Caribbean, but it is important that we get to that point,” he said.

Dr Malcolm, an attorney-at-law who has been responsible for international networking, public outreach and alumni affairs at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, was speaking at this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange about the next major step in the local centre’s efforts to expose its credentials for being the region’s main arbitration centre.

That step is the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Conference scheduled for Spanish Court Hotel, New Kingston, on August 28.

The conference, being held under the theme ‘Boosting the use of Arbitration in the Caribbean’, has been endorsed by the International Court of Arbitration and is being staged here with the collaboration of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce.

The discussions will centre on the Arbitration Act passed by Jamaica’s Parliament in April this year and which seeks to provide an effective non-judicial mechanism for settling disputes between contracting parties.

The Bill, intended to repeal and replace the 1900 Arbitration Act, also seeks to facilitate domestic and international trade and commerce by encouraging the use of arbitration as a method of resolving disputes.

Despite a very modern Act in place, Jamaica has been late in following upon the BVI’s International Arbitration Centre, the nucleus of the arbitration process, which boasts a range of comfortable state-of-the-art room choices for hearings and meetings of any size, as well as free WiFi, and access to a breakout room during hearings.

But Dr Malcolm is confident that, with Jamaica having what he insists is the most modern arbitration legislation in the region, it will be only a matter of time before the country emerges as the regional headquarters for arbitration.

“Once we get it right, we are going to generate income from it. We are not trying to reinvent anything. All we are saying is that in the Caribbean region right now, there is no viable centre that has been established,” he told the Monday Exchange.

“What we can do is to recognise that there are a number of people who are jockeying for that space. But with all the money that BVI has spent, we are still at a point where people are calling us and are ignoring BVI, because people have seen the space,” Dr Malcolm noted.

However, he warned that if Jamaicans do not rally around the space and make it work, “all that is going to happen is that we are going to lose value”.

Speaking on the issue, Opposition spokesman on justice, Senator Mark Golding, an arbitration lawyer himself who has played a very important role in the creation of the Act in Parliament, shared Malcolm’s optimism about the future of the local centre.

“The initiative, which has been started at the UWI, and with Chris’s leadership, I have a lot of optimism that it is going to be successful, because he is driving it and he has a good network of international contacts that he is leveraging to make sure, and we have the law,” Senator Golding said.

Conference speakers will include high-level representatives of the ICC’s International Court of Arbitration and its secretariat, who will explain the steps taken by the court to boost efficiency of arbitral procedures under ICC arbitration rules. Renowned arbitration practitioners will examine diverse topics, including judicial support for international arbitration.

Other speakers will include minister of justice Delroy Chuck, who piloted the Bill in the House of Representatives; shadow spokesman on industry, investment and commerce Anthony Hylton; president of the Caribbean Confederation of Employers Wayne Chen; director of the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration Professor Sundra Rajoo; director for the Americas of the ICC International Court of Arbitration Katherine Gonzalez; and former president of the ICC Court of International Arbitration John Beechey.