Nansha, Hong Kong achieve interconnection in aviation insurance

The 2019 Nansha Maritime and Insurance Seminar focusing on industry interconnection was held in Guangzhou’s Nansha district on June 1. It was sponsored by the Hong Kong Maritime Insurance Association and Jinghai Law Firm, and organized by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Supply Chain Research Institute.

Seven experts from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland discussed how Nansha and Hong Kong could achieve interconnection in aviation insurance from the aspects of the insurance industry, the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the maritime legal service system, sanctions orders, and maritime and insurance arbitration to help Nansha become an international shipping hub.

Pan Yuzhang, deputy director of the Administrative Committee of the Nansha Development Zone, said that Nansha has been striving to create a world-class legal business environment and has achieved fruitful results.

"Nansha actively created a rule of law government and became the only district in Guangzhou to reach full coverage of the legal administrative demonstration."

"In the area of judicial reform and innovation, Nansha focused on creating a diversified civil and commercial dispute resolution demonstration zone with the principles of joint discussion, co-construction and shared benefits," he said.

"It has established the first free trade zone court and free trade zone procuratorate in the country, and provided legal services for Belt and Road affairs," he noted.

He added that "the district pioneered the Hong Kong and Macao people's assessor system in the country. Hong Kong and Macao special mediation organizations and special mediators were invited. Hong Kong practicing barristers were also invited to mediate foreign-related commercial cases."

The Nansha International Arbitration Center had pioneered the realization of commercial arbitration by parties' choice. It has initially established a multi-level, low-cost and high-efficiency commercial dispute resolution mechanism.

"Nansha and Hong Kong have a good cooperation foundation for ship insurance," said Qiu Guoxuan, executive dean of the Supply Chain Research Institute of the Greater Bay Area.

"The maritime law has been internationalized for many years. Hong Kong adopts internationally accepted British law, and Nansha Maritime Arbitration has been able to switch legal systems of Hong Kong, Macao and the Mainland," he added.

"With the integrated development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the continuous gathering of Nansha shipping elements, Hong Kong can set up an insurance branch in the district, and in the near future it will be able to purchase Hong Kong shipping insurance products in Nansha, which lays the foundation for exploring the construction of innovative insurance trading platforms, " he noted.