Ministry of Justice hosts inaugural news conference for Belt and Road and rule of law publicity campaign

The Ministry of Justice holds the inaugural news conference for a publicity campaign on the Belt and Road and rule of law on Oct 26. [Photo/moj.gov.cn]

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) held the inaugural news conference for a publicity campaign themed on the rule of law along the Belt and Road on Oct 26 to bring into play the role of the Belt and Road International Lawyers Association (BRILA) in the high-quality development of the Belt and Road.

Kang Yu, secretary-general of the BRILA, Han Yong'an, director of the BRILA's Xi'an representative office, and Huang Shan, director of the association's Guangzhou representative office, attended the press conference and introduced relevant information. The conference was hosted by the MOJ spokesperson Li Zishun.

Kang introduced that the BRILA was established in 2019 as an international lawyer organization providing legal support for the high-quality development of the Belt and Road. The association currently has 2,670 individual and organizational members, including lawyer associations, law firms, legal institutions, and individual lawyers from 54 countries and regions.

Since its establishment, the BRILA has focused such fields as international trade, cross-border investment, capital markets, maritime and maritime commerce, intellectual property rights, information security, and digital economy. It has been facilitating the deep participation of its members in the Belt and Road construction through activities like legal policy research, publication of country-specific legal environment reports, legal consulting, conferences, and training.

The BRILA members have engaged in in-depth discussions on legal issues in fields like energy and infrastructure development, actively participated in people-to-people exchanges between China and Laos. It has provided high-level, precise legal services for major Belt and Road projects, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the China-Thailand Railway, and the power transmission services in Laos.

Han and Huang elaborated on the outcomes and experiences of the Xi'an and Guangzhou representative offices in providing legal services in foreign-related legal matters during the construction of the Belt and Road.

The association will intensify research on the legal systems and policies of countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, cooperate with more international mechanisms, and create a higher-level platform for development. It will strive to establish an all-weather legal service network centered around the association and radiating to countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

More efforts will be made to develop the association into an international professional organization, and give full leverage the association's roles as a platform, window, and bridge for achievements sharing.

The MOJ launched the publicity campaign in October this year. Following the first news conference, the ministry will organize a series of publicity and reporting activities, including on-site interviews.