OHADA Indian Ocean, create common law for business! -JDM

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Mayotte, in partnership with the ACP Légal Indian Ocean Association, the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), the OHADA Regional Indian Ocean Club (Comoros) , the University of Fianarantsoa (Madagascar), the School of Magistracy and Registries (Madagascar), the Ministry of Industrialization, Trade and Consumption (Madagascar) as well as other economic actors in the region, met for an international conference in the large hall of the CCIM in Mamoudzou.

Above all, this event was intended for law students, business law practitioners, businesses as well as stakeholders in the trade sector from Mayotte, Comoros and Madagascar.

The aim of this day was to discuss the construction of a concrete collaborative project, making it possible to facilitate the realization of business and commercial exchanges in the south-west of the Indian Ocean.

OHADA, an inspiring model

OHADA means “Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa”. Business law jurists regularly qualify this union as “the most successful legal and judicial integration experience of the end of the 20th century.” »

It is an international organization, bringing together 17 African states, whose original objective was to achieve common legal integration for the member countries of the organization. Concretely, the objective of OHADA is to facilitate trade and investments, by guaranteeing legal and judicial security for business activities in sub-Saharan Africa.

This process worked so well that Caribbean states also came together in a common project for the economic development of the region, called OHADAC, Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in the Caribbean.

Create an OHADA for the southwest of the Indian Ocean

Inspired by these successes, the economic actors of the south-west of the Indian Ocean wish in turn to develop an OHADA “OI” process for the Indian Ocean, by unifying a common business law, to facilitate trade. trade between Mayotte, the Comoros and Madagascar.

Rita Baco, international mission manager at the CCIM attests: “The objective is to propel real economic development in the region and create a vast integrated market in order to make the Indian Ocean an area of ​​attraction and development prosperous for investors. » Indeed, according to the project manager, the establishment of common business law could promote the attractiveness of investors in these three States by facilitating their exchanges but also in the event of disputes, which could be more easily apprehended. , thanks to a common legal basis.

Achieve a convergence of lessons

This union would also make it possible to promote a convergence of trade and business law teaching, to develop skills and knowledge on regional business and trade laws in a comparative and practical approach between French/European law for Mayotte. , OHADA law for the Comoros and Malagasy law for Madagascar.

Mohamed Ali Hamid, President of the CCIM, hoped that this day would be rich in exchanges and proposals for practical actions, in order to “shape the first axes of a common future for economic exchanges in the region”. We can say that it was a success!

Mathilde Hangard