As the new year starts, I am honoured, as president of ACP Legal, to send you my best wishes for 2021. I hope that in the year head you will be able to fulfil your plans and work on behalf of the unity of the Caribbean region, in spite of the difficulties we are going through.

The year 2020 was in many ways an exceptional year, following the unprecedented pandemic that has forced a new reality on us and which we had to adapt to at great speed.

The situation has made it clear that it is now more important than ever to work together to secure our future.

In spite of the difficulties, I am happy to announce that we have been able to make crucial progress towards delivering the second phase of the OHADAC project on arbitration and mediation. This has been possible thanks to the mobilisation of all the actors involved in the project, namely: the ACP Legal association; the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Islands of Guadeloupe (CCIIG), which is leading the project; the Joint Secretariat of the European Union in Guadeloupe; our consultants Jean-Alain PENDA and Marie-Camille PITTON, who have been working to drive the project forward for several years; and all the jurists and experts in the Caribbean and elsewhere who support us.

The FEDER Agreement between the project leader, CCIIG, and the managing authority of the Interreg V Caribbean programme was signed on March 5, 2020, and the first funds allocated to the project have been paid to us, thereby allowing the OHADAC Regional Centre for Arbitration to be established.

After this stage, the bodies governing the CARO association were set up, premises were allocated inside the World Trade Centre Complex in Jarry, Guadeloupe, and a first free mediation initiative was organised to offer support to companies in Guadeloupe as they resume activities following the first spring lockdown. A first arbitration award was also rendered under the aegis of the OHADAC arbitration texts, which was publicised by the magazine Inter-Entreprises.

Last but not least, we are currently putting the finishing touches to our service provision, which will cover the entire range of alternative dispute resolution methods with two objectives: to provide a tailor-made service to users of the CARO Centre; and to promote not only the resolution but also the anticipation of disputes. The Centre aims to be a project accelerator that serves the interests of Caribbean businesses and institutions.

In terms of our partnerships, in 2020 we renewed our partnership with the Chamber of Conciliation and Arbitration of Haiti, which we welcome. In addition, we worked with the Caribbean ADR Initiative, led by Shan GREER (a lawyer practicing in St Lucia and the UK), and Baria AHMED (a mediator and former secretary general of the Barbados Arbitration and Mediation Centre), on mediation and arbitration awareness-raising actions. The summer of 2020 also saw us take part in the major conference on access to justice organised by the Dispute Resolution Foundation of Jamaica, chaired by John BASSIE, a lawyer in Jamaica and in the United Kingdom and future president of the Caribbean branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators - and who is also our partner.

Furthermore, we were fortunate to be assisted by our first two OHADAC interns: Anaïs LERAY and Solène BALAGUETTE, two jurists from Guadeloupe who were trained not only on the island but also in mainland France and at the prestigious American universities of Cornell and Georgetown. Anaïs and Solèneery are very keen to actively promote their territory in the region and beyond, and are working under the leadership of Marie-Camille PITTON to launch the activities of the CARO Centre.

Accordingly, I am very proud to announce that the official launch of the activities of the OHADAC Regional Arbitration and Mediation Centre is now very close. We will do our utmost in the coming months to ensure that the Centre contributes to the revival of our economy and helps support the actors who make the Caribbean region so dynamic and resilient.