Chen Xiaochun

654789759@qq.com

THE launch ceremony for the codevelopment of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Legal Services Deep Cooperation Zone and its first joint conference was held at Vanke (Qianhai) International Convention Center yesterday.

The first batch of a total of 40 legal services organizations and agencies from China’s Hong Kong and Macao, and the Chinese mainland, covering law, notarization, mediation, intellectual property, accounting services and in-house lawyers, signed up to codevelop the legal services cooperation zone.

The event was hosted by Qianhai Belt & Road Legal Services Federation (QBR LSF) and supported by Qianhai Authority, Shenzhen Municipal Justice Bureau and the Shenzhen branch of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

The first joint conference voted through the memorandum of the 2019 cooperation plan for the construction of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Legal Services Deep Cooperation Zone, which stipulates the key plans for 2019, including building the Qianhai international commercial dispute resolution center and the “Belt and Road” Chinese-speaking lawyers cooperation platform.

Du Chun, president of QBR LSF, said that the codevelopment of the legal services cooperation zone is a response to President Xi Jinping’s important instruction to deepen the cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong during his inspection tour of Qianhai in October.

“To carry out the deployment of working with Hong Kong to create an international legal services center and international commercial dispute resolution center under the construction planning of the country’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with the support from competent state and local departments, QBR LSF joins hands with professional legal organizations from Hong Kong and Shenzhen to codevelop the legal services cooperation zone,” said Du.

“This year marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up. In this process, Hong Kong has also played an important role. Quoting Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Hong Kong is a contributor as well as a beneficiary. To experience the achievement of our country’s reform and opening up, we have to come to Shenzhen,” said Ambrose Lam, president of Global Chinese-speaking Lawyers’ Association (GCLA) and former president of The Law Society of Hong Kong.

“Qianhai is not only a land of innovation, but also the only demonstration zone of the socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics. China is stressing the rule of law, and Qianhai and Hong Kong work closely under the ‘one country, two systems’ policy. Thanks to all of these policies, GCLA and QBR LSF were born, and today the legal services cooperation zone,” said Lam.

Liu Xiaochun, president of Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration, said that Qianhai has always been a hotbed for reform and opening up as well as legal development. It’s not only part of Shenzhen, or part of Guangdong, but also part of the Greater Bay Area and the “Belt and Road.”

“Today is the Constitution Day of China. Launching the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Legal Services Deep Cooperation Zone on this special day marks a milestone in the construction process of the Qianhai demonstration zone of the rule of law,” said Tian Min, vice director of Qianhai Authority.