MOJ actively promotes international arbitration exchange and cooperation

Recently, the 26th International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) Congress Shenzhen Side Event was held in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province.

The event offered chances for the international legal community to gain a closer understanding of the latest developments in international arbitration in China and the progress China has made in the fostering of a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment.

Yang Xiangbin, head of the Bureau of Public Legal Services Administration of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), said at the side event that the MOJ has been consistently fulfilling its responsibilities of coordinating advancement of the rule of law both in domestic and foreign-related affairs. Efforts have been made to revise the Arbitration Law, advance arbitration innovation and reform, promote the internationalization and professionalization of China's arbitration services, and promote international arbitration exchanges and cooperation, as well as talent cultivation. These measures have promoted substantial progress in the country's arbitration services.

Yang expressed the hope that the international arbitration community would jointly promote mutual learning and reference of international arbitration legal systems, the development of international arbitration systems and promote exchanges and opening-up within the international arbitration industry. To this end, he welcomed renowned international arbitration institutions to expand their business in China.

He also called for joint efforts in strengthening international arbitration exchange and cooperation, improving collaboration mechanisms, building a world-class business environment, deepening research in international arbitration theory and practice, and strengthening talent cultivation.

These initiatives aim to achieve mutual development and win-win cooperation between arbitration institutions in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), create conditions for building Hong Kong into a center for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region, and provide high-quality legal services and legal guarantees for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), as well as the stable and sustainable implementation of "one country, two systems".

Paul Lam Ting-Kwok, secretary for justice of the HKSAR government, noted that Hong Kong and Shenzhen have maintained close cooperation in promoting arbitration. The SAR government has been striving to position Hong Kong as a center for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region, which plays a unique role under the framework of "one country, two systems".

Lam also briefed on nine judicial assistance arrangements signed between Hong Kong and the mainland, and said that justice departments of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao have jointly promoted cooperation among arbitration and mediation institutions in the three regions to jointly build a dispute resolution platform for the GBA.

The ICCA 2024 Shenzhen Side Event was co-hosted by the Department of Justice of the HKSAR government, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, and the South China International Arbitration Center (Hong Kong). Nearly 300 legal professionals from the mainland, Hong Kong, and 36 other countries and regions, including Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Russia, Belgium, Finland, New Zealand, and the United States, participated in the event.