Entrepreneurs welcome the introduction of alternative dispute resolution, in particular, the development of commercial mediation. The most active aspire to get the second profession of a mediator. This was announced on November 30 during a panel discussion on the Danaker platform on the topic: “How will mediation help in business development?”.
During the meeting, business representatives and key experts of Danaker: Dilbara Maksimbekova, adviser on judicial reform of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in the Kyrgyz Republic, representative of small hydropower plants, mediator Elvira Borombaeva and director of the International Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution ADR Center International in Romania Konstantin Adi Gavrila discussed issues related to the resolution of commercial disputes.
Mediation for business
Dilbara Maksimbekova informed that at the beginning of the year, they were approached by businessmen with a request to organize a separate training on commercial mediation.
“Businessmen wanted to know what possibilities the meditation opens up, how the procedure itself is carried out, what is its peculiarity? We saw that businessmen are not only interested in the alternative resolution of disputes, moreover, but they themselves also want to mediate. And this is justified: who knows the problems of business better than they do? We decided to support the initiative and invited an international trainer from Minsk Liliya Vlasova to conduct a special course on commercial mediation for business representatives, ”said Dilbara Maksimbekova.
During the five-day Commercial Mediation Course, more than 20 entrepreneurs received a mediator certificate. Gulnara Uskenbaeva, President of the Association of Suppliers, Manufacturers and Distributors, believes that mediation of dispute resolution can become one of the sought-after extrajudicial procedures.
“As a rule, disputes in business are resolved in the process of negotiations or in court. But in court cases are considered for a long time, and waiting for a business is too expensive. The negotiation process may also come to a standstill. And the presence of the neutral side of the mediator can qualitatively affect the negotiation process. I saw a great perspective in mediation and decided to go through special training, ”said Uskenbayeva.
Alternative solution
The law on mediation came into force in early 2018. A feature of mediation is the resolution of disputes with the participation of a neutral person – the mediator. According to experts, an alternative method of resolving disputes will relieve the courts and thereby contribute to improving the quality of courts.
According to official data, the average workload per judge of the first instance is 43.2 cases, the average workload per judge at the second instance is 6.7 cases.
But, the state courts for the recognition of the entrepreneurs themselves are the “last resort”. According to the head of the alliance, Uluk Kydyrbekov, now the cumbersome handling of cases in state courts and, most importantly, the introduction of state fees pushes business away from them
Entrepreneur Kubat Rakhimov asked the order in which he prefers to resolve commercial disputes by building the following order: negotiations, arbitration, and only then the courts. According to Elvira Borombaeva, entrepreneurs somehow have to face conflict situations.
“Mediation has certain tools that will allow us to constructively resolve conflicts, maintain partnerships, and this is very important in business,” says Borombaeva.
How to create demand supply?
To date, the Republican community of mediators has been created and 72 trained mediators have already received a mediator certificate. In addition, there are two mediation centers in the country – the National Center for Mediation and the Center for Mediation and Negotiation. 85 mediators were trained under the project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and IDLO “Development of Commercial Mediation in the Kyrgyz Republic”.
But between the mediators and the business has yet to create a mutually beneficial path of cooperation based on supply and demand. Now, most mediators have little practical experience in resolving commercial disputes, and business has little information about mediation. In addition, there are legal restrictions: mediation cannot resolve disputes if one of the subjects is the state. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs have repeatedly talked about the problems of interaction with government agencies, the contradictions associated with tax and customs issues.
Taking into account the current situation, IDLO within the framework of the EBRD project “Development of Commercial Mediation in the Kyrgyz Republic” is ready to provide support to businesses and take the costs of paying for mediator services.
“Now there is little information in society about the opportunities that are being created in the right field. And we all have to do a lot of work in this direction, ”said Dilbara Maksimbekova.
[The original language of the article is Russian, and this post is translated automatically.]
