Beijing advances building of international commercial arbitration center

Beijing has made solid progress in building itself into an international commercial arbitration center.

In 2023, the three arbitration institutions based in Beijing, namely the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, the China Maritime Arbitration Commission and the Beijing Arbitration Commission, handled 18,583 cases valued at a total of nearly 279.21 billion yuan ($38.47 billion), indicating a year-on-year increase of 46.36 percent in the case number and 24.16 percent in the total value. Among them, 978 foreign-related cases with a value of 59.291 billion yuan were concluded, accounting for 31.28 percent and 30.36 percent of the national totals, respectively, according to a conference on promoting the building of an international commercial arbitration center in Beijing held recently by the capital's justice department.

In 2022, Beijing initiated reforms of its arbitration system and mechanisms as well as the drive to build an international commercial arbitration center. These initiatives have outlined 57 specific tasks across 22 categories, which have now been basically completed.

As international commercial arbitration is a hallmark of a world-class city, building Beijing into an international commercial arbitration center is part of the capital's efforts to fully advance its strategy of building "four centers" (the national political center, cultural center, international exchange center, and international scientific and technological innovation center), especially the building of the latter two, in a bid to boost the high-quality development of the capital, an official from the Beijing municipal government said.

As a result of effective efforts it has made in recent years, Beijing has improved its arbitration-friendly environment, accelerated the establishment of a full-chain dispute resolution mechanism, yielded significant results in international arbitration exchange and cooperation, and promoted the cultivation of foreign-related legal talents.

For instance, the justice department of Beijing, in collaboration with other relevant departments, has issued measures on the optimization of the city's environment for the development of the legal services industry.

Furthermore, arbitration institutions in Beijing have signed cooperation agreements with over 80 international arbitration institutions and organizations, and established the Beijing Joint Declaration of the Belt and Road Arbitration Institutions and its cooperation mechanism. Additionally, the advantages of Beijing's higher education resources have been fully tapped to cultivate three types of arbitration talents, including leading foreign-related arbitration talents.