Mumbai, Oct 10 (KNN) India’s first centre for international arbitration, which has been inaugurated in Mumbai on Saturday, envisages attracting arbitration cases not only from Indian businesses but also global companies.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, while inaugurating the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA), said that it would be shifted to a bigger and exclusive facility at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) from the existing set up at Express Tower.

Terming MCIA as an important milestone in the journey to develop an ecosystem for the proposed International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Mumbai, Fadnavis said he was confident that MCIA would be able to attract arbitration cases not only from the Indian businesses but also global companies. The state government has plans afoot to set up the IFSC in BKC.

“The London Court of International Arbitration and Singapore International Arbitration Centre each accounts for 30% of cases that involved Indian businesses. The businesses not only lose their precious money but also lot of time in these arbitrations. I am sure MCIA will attract these cases and also businesses world-over to help make India one of the top arbitration centres in the world,” Fadnavis said.

The chief minister said the establishment of MCIA demonstrated Maharashtra government’s resolve to create IFSC in Mumbai.

The MCIA will be governed by a 17-member governing council.

Fadnavis also said that the concerted efforts made by the Union government and Maharashtra to put in place the policy mechanism and physical apparatus for “a transparent, efficient, and credible dispute resolution system.

“The centre passed the Arbitration and Conciliation Amendment Act in 2015 that started the journey towards building this ecosystem. Maharashtra followed it up with an arbitration policy. Now we have the policy mechanism in place as well as the physical infrastructure in the form of MCIA,” Fadnavis said.

Maharashtra is the only state in India to have an arbitration policy, he added.