CAIRO: The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) ruled in favor of the Ministry of Irrigation in its lawsuit against three contractors working on the Naga Dam in Qena on Aug. 8. Uncitral awarded the Egyptian government the entire disputed sum of money, ordering to pay the Ministry of Agriculture LE 40 million. The Ministry's case against Vinci Grands Project, Belle Finger Berger, and Orascom Construction originated from a dispute regarding the price adjustment mechanism in the contract. It stipulated how the contracting parties would account for the rise of prices of construction materials over time. By winning this case, Egypt does not have to face the lawsuits from the other four contracts awarded for building the dam, which use the same price-fixing mechanism. The other contractors were waiting to see what would happen with this case, said lawyer Karim Hafez, who represented the Ministry of Irrigation in this case, to Daily News Egypt. Had the court issued a negative ruling, "it could then have applied to contracts worth LE 200 million. This ruling will not affect other contracts in Egypt, however, because when you take a standard contract, you normally introduce special conditions to reflect the specific conditions of the project. This dispute arose regarding one of these specific decisions, Hafez explained. Ibrahim Naga, project manager for the Naga Dam, declined to comment on the case, stating that the ministry had not received the legal papers yet and was unable to speak about the matter. Hafez also remarked that the case may have significant repercussions within the Egyptian legal community. In these [international] cases the government has previously appointed a foreign council and lost. This is one of the few occasions it appointed a local council and we won. It s also true that while the other side had a French lawyer, there was an Egyptian lawyer from the Shalakany firm representing the contractors. This was greater than the usual degree of confidence placed in local legal talent and we did not disappoint. This was not the unusual aspect about the government s selection of Hafez to represent it. We live in a very age-conscious society and your humble servant is only 35 years old, Hafez said. In the past it would have been inconceivable for someone of my age to take a case of this size and magnitude. However, Hafez indicated that he felt that the appointment of such a young lawyer was driven by necessity rather than shifting cultural attitudes. The Nasser era produced few competent international business lawyers, he said, because Egypt lawyers did not have enough contact with foreigners to develop linguistic skills and cross-cultural understanding. There was also little need for business lawyers in the socialist economy. After Sadat s open door policy, a far greater demand for international business lawyers emerged and Egyptian legal education and culture correspondingly changed to meet that demand. As a result of these shifts, there are few qualified international business lawyers between the ages of 30 and 70. While Hafez hoped that this case would be a harbinger of things to come, he also pointed out that milestones are only visible in retrospect.
