Thursday, October 12, 2006

Int'l trade law harmonisation stressed

Participating in the deliberations at the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly on the report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) on wednesday , Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, Member of Parliament and Member of the delegation of Nepal to the 61st session of the Assembly, said that promotion of the progressive harmonisation and unification of the law of international trade is recognised as a vehicle for socio-economic development.

MP Pandey further said that globalisation and rapid growth of information and communication technologies have increase both complexities and interdependence in the global commercial transactions, according to the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York, USA.

He mentioned that the year 2005 had marked the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. He acknowledged the work UNCITRAL in various areas including draft legislative guide on secured transactions, legislative measures on interim measures regarding the interpretation or relevant articles of the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, procurement, transport law, insolvency law, electronic commerce, security interest and commercial fraud.

He emphasised that development, modernisation and harmonisation of international trade law would provide countries, especially developing and least developed ones, with a tool to deal with the increasing volume and complexity of international trade and business resulting from globalisation, while also enhancing the confidence of potential investors and promoting trade and development.

He mentioned that Nepal, a least developed and land-locked country, has been making its efforts to utilise, as appropriate, various UNCITRAL instruments in the form of legislative guides and model in the matters relating to both national and international trade law. Nepal, as a member of the World Trade Organisation, urges international community to give special consideration to the enhancement of national capacity of least developed counties, which face geographical handicap and other difficulties in their national efforts for making their trade regime qualitative and competitive, he said. He called upon UNCITRAL to give special attention to the needs of least developed countries in its technical assistance programme.

MP Pandey mentioned that Nepal supported the convening of the UNCITRAL congress in 2007 and looked forward to participating in the preparation process. He urged UNCITRAL and its Secretariat to take necessary measures to provide financial assistance to ensure participation of least developed counties in the activities of UNCITRAL.
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