China News Service, Hong Kong, December 10th. Zheng Ruohua, the Secretary of Justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, delivered a speech on the 10th at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Arbitration Practice Training, introducing Hong Kong's arbitration advantages and saying that Hong Kong's arbitration advantages come from the support of national policies. Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau must give full play to their unique advantages of "one country, two systems and three jurisdictions" to create an internationally competitive business environment.
Zheng Ruohua said that Hong Kong’s arbitration advantage comes from the support of national policies. This year is the first year of the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan. The Central People’s Government supports Hong Kong to continue to consolidate and enhance its status as an international legal and dispute resolution service center in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hong Kong has a profound arbitration culture and has many international lawyers who understand national conditions and international customs.
Furthermore, with the strong support of the Guangdong Lawyers Association, a group of Hong Kong lawyers will be qualified to practice Chinese law in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. They will be employed by law firms in 9 cities in Guangdong to provide legal services to clients together with mainland lawyers. .
Zheng Ruohua mentioned that under the "one country, two systems" in recent years, Hong Kong has made breakthroughs in arbitration, including the arbitration procedure preservation arrangement signed in April 2019.
According to the arrangement, parties to an arbitration procedure that uses Hong Kong as the seat of arbitration and is managed by a designated qualified arbitration institution can apply to the relevant mainland court for preservation measures to assist in the relevant arbitration procedure.
The preservation arrangement allows the parties to the arbitration to obtain the assistance of the mainland courts in a convenient way to handle the preservation application related to the arbitration procedure, and provide them with practical convenience.
Zheng Ruohua stated that Hong Kong hopes to achieve "Hong Kong-funded Hong Kong-based arbitration" in the Greater Bay Area.
She said that in August last year, the "Regulations on the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone" have been revised to allow 11,500 Hong Kong-funded enterprises registered in the Qianhai Cooperation Zone to obtain contracts without "foreign-related factors". The parties agree that Hong Kong law can be used as the applicable law for civil and commercial contracts.
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