The Gujarat Maritime University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority in GIFT City to promote the Gujarat International Maritime Arbitration Centre (GIMAC).
Context
The Gujarat Maritime University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Financial Services Centres Authority in GIFT City to promote the Gujarat International Maritime Arbitration Centre (GIMAC).
About the Gujarat International Maritime Arbitration Centre (GIMAC)
- The GIMAC will be part of a maritime cluster that the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) is setting up in GIFT City at Gandhinagar.
- This will manage arbitration and mediation proceedings with disputes related to the maritime and shipping sector.
- There are over 35 arbitration centres in India. However, none of them exclusively deals with the maritime sector.
- The arbitration involving Indian players is now heard at the Singapore Arbitration Centre.
- Globally, London is the preferred centre for arbitration for the maritime and shipping sector.
- The idea is to create a world-class arbitration centre focused on maritime and shipping disputes that can help resolve commercial and financial conflicts between entities having operations in India.
- A 10-member advisory board for GIMAC, consisting of international experts and professionals, has been created, which will help in the framing of rules for the arbitration centre and empanelling arbitrators.
- It will be seeking foreign collaboration for setting up the GIMAC.
Maritime Cluster in Gujarat
- A maritime cluster is an agglomeration of firms, institutions, and businesses in the maritime sector that are geographically located close to each other.
- The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), a nodal agency of the Gujarat government, has been trying to develop such a cluster at GIFT City in the state capital Gandhinagar.
- 3 phased approach:
- This cluster will initially consist of Gujarat-based shipping lines, freight forwarders, shipping agents, bunker suppliers, stevedores, and shipbrokers with chartering requirements.
- In the second stage, the cluster would attempt to bring Indian ship owners, ship operators, Indian charterers and technical consultants scattered in cities like Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi to Gujarat.
- Thereafter it would target to attract global players in the maritime sphere.
- This project will try to bring back businesses that have migrated over the years to foreign locations due to the absence of the right ecosystem in the country.
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