Saudi companies filed claims with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Commercial Arbitration Center “Dar Al-Qarar” totaling 21 million U.S. dollars, representing 19% of the total value of claims, which amounted to approximately 112 million U.S. dollars.
Dar Al-Qarar received 18 arbitration requests during the period from January 1 through the end of the third quarter of this year. The disputes centered on the construction, real estate, and stock underwriting sectors, as well as the purchase of clothing, land development, electronic data supply, leasing, and sales.
Bahraini companies led in terms of the value of registered arbitration claims, with approximately 83 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 74%, followed by Saudi companies with approximately 21 million U.S. dollars, accounting for 19%, while the value of arbitration claims filed by Bahraini companies against Gulf-based companies amounted to 8 million U.S. dollars.
The most significant disputes in terms of value involved Bahraini parties, totaling approximately 23.2 million US dollars, concerning an engineering contract subject to Bahraini law; this was followed by a dispute involving Saudi parties totaling approximately 20.7 million US dollars concerning a contract for the development of land owned by the respondent, which was substantively governed by Saudi law, while the third-largest dispute in terms of value, also involving Bahraini parties, amounted to approximately 20 million US dollars and concerned a sales contract substantively governed by Bahraini law.
Ahmed Najm, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Commercial Arbitration Center “Dar Al-Qarar,” affirmed that “The Center has come to enjoy a high level of trust among clients at various levels, and the growth in the volume of dispute registration requests is one of the indicators through which the Center gauges this trust by having the parties include the Center’s arbitration clause in their agreements.”
Najm called on all Gulf companies and institutions operating in the private and public sectors—whether in services, real estate development, oil and gas, import and export, construction, manufacturing, or other investment sectors, to include an arbitration clause in their contracts, noting that arbitration (private adjudication) has become on par with state courts in resolving commercial, financial, and investment disputes quickly, impartially, and with complete confidentiality, issuing final and binding awards that cannot be appealed.
