Benefiting from the further opening up of Shanghai, breakthroughs and progress have been achieved in Shanghai-Hong Kong cooperation in such fields as finance, education, culture, innovation, technology and legal services. To explore new trends and developments in Shanghai’s and Hong Kong’s international economic and trade arbitration markets, the Shanghai-Hong Kong Arbitration Connect Forum 2019 was held on December 6.

Chaired by Ma Yi, Deputy Director and Secretary General of SHIAC, the meeting was attended by hundreds of lawyers, arbitrators and arbitration professionals specializing in dispute settlement between Chinese and foreign parties.

In his speech, Chairman of the Shanghai International Trade Promotion Commission Zhou Minhao introduced to the audience the role of the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (also known as the Shanghai International Arbitration Center, or “SHIAC”). As one of the earliest overseas-related arbitration institutions in the Chinese mainland, SHIAC has rich experience in Kong Kong-related arbitration cases, while Hong Kong has many advanced practices in international arbitration worth learning from.

As Zhou said, in recent years, SHIAC and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC) have maintained good relations with each other, especially in the fields of business collaboration, public education and promotion, and legal research. It is hoped that the two sides can work together for further cooperation in the context of China’s new plan for the Lin-gang Special Area, a newly added part of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

(Chairman of the Shanghai International Trade Promotion Commission Zhou Minhao)

(Ma Yi, Deputy Director and Secretary General of SHIAC)

The exchange and mutual trust between Shanghai’s and Hong Kong’s arbitration legal circles are of great significance to the prosperity of the arbitration cause in both places and the improvement of their legal systems, said Matthew Gearing, Chairperson of HKIAC. As he mentioned, this April, the Supreme People’s Court (the highest level ofcourton the mainland) and the Hong Kong SAR Government signed the Arrangement Concerning Mutual Assistance inCourt-ordered Interim Measures in Aid of Arbitral Proceedings.

(Matthew Gearing, Chairperson of HKIAC)

Representatives from SHIAC and HKIAC, arbitrators and lawyers then shared their insights in developing the arbitration services markets in Shanghai and Hong Kong and the prospects for the arbitration legal professionals’ community in the context of the newly added Lin-gang Special Area.

The Forum was the first seminar held since the launch of the Shanghai International Dispute Resolution Center this November. In the same month as the second CIIE (China International Import Expo), the measures calling for international arbitration institutions, including HKIAC, to open businesses in the Lin-gang Special Area were officially rolled out. In the future, arbitration law practitioners in Shanghai and Hong Kong will have more opportunities for exchange and cooperation, thereby further promoting the common development of dispute settlement services in the two places, and accelerating Shanghai's aim of building itself into an Asia-Pacific international arbitration center.