Stakeholders validate SIFCA Model Framework for Gambia

This is a next-generation model bilateral investment treaty that brings together for the first time the divergent regimes of investment protection, business and human rights and environmental protection for The Gambia to use as a national framework for future Investment Agreement Negotiations.

Further to a (two phase) capacity building support to The Gambia delivered by the K&L Gates LLP Law firm in collaboration with the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) under the Investment Support Programme for the Least Developed Countries (ISP/LDCs), K&L Gates with IDLO’s ISP/LDCs experts on International Law and International Arbitration from the University of Sydney supported the development of a Model Sustainable Investment Facilitation and Cooperation Agreement (the ‘Model SIFCA’) with an International Investment Agreement (IIA) Negotiating Reference Document.

Mr. Omar Badgie, the Director at the Directorate of Industry and Investment Development, MoTIEwelcomed there guest from  K&L Gates LLP Law Firm to The Gambia to have the final stage of the Sustainable Investment Facilitation and Cooperation Agreement (SIFCA) Model Framework for The Gambia for all future Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) Agreement negotiations after 2 long years of interaction.

He said they first started with the training for the investment model development and today they are present to validate the document.  According to him, having this model in The Gambia will be a ring against  future government contracts  especially public investment that has to do with government infrastructure.

Robert Houston, Senior Associate (International Arbitration) K&L Gates LLP Law Firm took the participants through the document. He informed them that the objectives of the SIFCA Framework is to introduce investors’ business and human rights obligations as a shield for Host States in IIAs, to reduce power imbalances in investors-state dispute settlement (ISDS) between developing states and well-funded investors and to promote more equal sharing of risks and benefits in modern investment treaty practice.