Wenzhou extends 'once and for all' legal services to overseas compatriots

As the hometown of many overseas Chinese, the coastal city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, has adopted new technologies to bring its iconic "once and for all" public legal services to those overseas compatriots.

Remote notarization service through video

Concentrated on his business affairs in Prota, Italy, Chen Yunhua was unable to timely return to China to go through the necessary administrative approval procedure for the remolding of his dilapidated house in Wenzhou this August.

At the time, the city's campaign of demolishing and remolding dilapidated apartment buildings was coming to an end.

Chen resorted to the overseas remote notarization service, about which he learnt from other compatriots. Within a little more than 30 minutes, he had accomplished notarization of all the required materials.

As with Chen, a growing proportion of Wenzhou's more than 700,000 overseas ex-residents, scattered in 131 countries and regions, also have difficulties in undergoing administrative procedures for home purchases in their hometown.

As the world's first notary public office to launch remote notarization service, the Huadong Notary Public Office in Wenzhou has been cooperating with the city's notarization service liaison office in Prota to provide video-based remote notarization services for local Chinese citizens from Wenzhou.

So far, the office has helped over a dozen clients go through the formalities for home purchases and mortgages.

At present, Wenzhou has six notarization service liaison offices in France, Italy, South Africa and United Arab Emirates. Together, these offices have provides 802 notarization services.

Video-based online arbitration

Thanks to the online arbitration platform launched by Wenzhou's arbitration committee, Jin was able to solve his loan dispute with a Wenzhou-based rural commercial bank in just 20 minutes without returning to Wenzhou, his hometown, from Rome, Italy.

As the businessmen from Wenzhou have established 18 commodity cities and 261 sales branches abroad, arbitration has been playing an increasingly important role in solving foreign-related economic disputes.

"Compared with litigation, there are fewer constraints for arbitration in subject matter and location," said Qiu Xinchu, head of Wenzhou's arbitration court. The verdicts of Chinese arbitration courts are now recognized and enforceable in over 150 countries and regions.

The launch of the online arbitration platform further enhances the flexibility of arbitration by allowing parties and arbitrators to participate at different times.

Statistics show that the platform can reduce the average time for the hearing of an arbitration case by at least half.

Lawyers also playing a role

As part of the effort of the Wenzhou's lawyers association to promote foreign-related legal services, Wenzhou-based JRC Law Firm established a liaison office in Paris where such technologies as facial recognition and matching of ID documents with selfies are adopted to confirm the identities of overseas Chinese and to perform video consultations, commercial negotiation and mediation.

Now, the lawyers association has been actively helping local law firms "go global" in an effort to enhance law firms' capability in providing foreign-related legal services.