Afghanistan Times
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By Farhad Naibkhel-KABUL: Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ACCI) in a joint venture with Harakat, a financial institute, established Afghanistan Center for Commercial Dispute Resolution (ACDR) to address commercial dispute across the country.
Minister of Commerce and Industries, Humayon Rasa said that commercial dispute resolution was one of the big challenges in front of traders, which were pending for months to be resolved.
Speaking at inauguration ceremony here on Tuesday, he said that in the past commercial disputes had to pass through 47 different stages in over 1600 days to be resolved, costing much. Due to tiresome process and bureaucratic hurdles, traders had lost their 25 percent investment for dispute resolution, he added.
While pledging support to the ACDR for further development, he urged traders to take due care of environment and customers’ rights when doing business in the country.
In order to provide further facilities to traders, the ministry would bring amendments in the business laws within 100-days via action plan, he promised, adding that capacity building is one of the most important issues. He said the ministry would take steps to provide training programs for the center’s staffs.
Deputy Chief of the ACCI, Khanjan Alkozai, said that lack of a specific center to address the commercial disputes was a big challenge before traders. He termed establishment of the ACDR a positive step in this regard, adding that ACDR would play broker and consultative role during commercial dispute prosecution.
He said that insufficient number of professional mediators to resolve the disputes is another challenge. The minister urged the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to issue licenses to the mediators for commercial disputes.
Chief Executive Officer of Harakat, Nasim Akbar, said the construction and equipping the ACDR has cost $1.8 million, provided by Harakat.
He emphasized that transparency, professionalism and independency are crucial for the center to win traders’ trust.
