DUSHANBE, July 26, Asia-Plus — Sharif Rahimzoda, Chairman of the State Committee for Investment and Management of State-owned Property, told journalists in Dushanbe on July 25 that to attract foreign investors Tajikistan ought to join the New York Convention, which is one of the most important and successful commercial law treaties and lays down conditions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration Awards in the territories of its member states.
“We have prepared all necessary documents to join the convention,” said Rahimzoda, “This means that we are ready to implement its terms and meet international requirements of court proceedings, which is of significant importance for foreign investors.”
Rahimzoda also noted that his committee will create a hotline in the near future. The hotline will promote resolving legal problems facing foreign investors in the country, according to him.
He added that the state-owned committee also intends to set up a body for simplifying a procedure of launching enterprises. “Surveys by sociologists have shown that establishment of an enterprise by physical entity in Tajikistan takes from 30 to 70 days,” said Rahimzoda, “This body will allow investors getting permission for working in Tajikistan in very short possible time.”
The New York Convention of 1958 is one of the most important and successful United Nations sponsored commercial law treaties. The Convention lays down conditions for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration Awards in the territories of its member states. The New York Convention is a treaty that promotes the mutual recognition and enforcement of foreign, rather than domestic, arbitral awards. That so many states have acceded to the Convention clearly demonstrates that international businesses from around the world support arbitration and wish their governments to do likewise.
Arbitration agreements are popular in a wide range of international contracts in large part because such agreements protect foreign parties from national courts that may be partial to the interests of their co-nationals, heavily politicized, lacking in relevant industry expertise, slow or even expensive. An additional attraction of arbitration lies in the fact that, unlike court proceedings, arbitration hearings are held in private and their existence and outcome are confidential to the parties.
