China (Kashi) -Central & South Asia Forum on the Rule of Law: Deepening International Arbitration Cooperation and Promoting the Sound Legal Framework of the Business Environment along the Belt and Road

On 30 October 2023, the first China (Kashi) -Central Asia&South AsiaForum on theRule of Law (hereinafter as the “Forum”),hostedby the Law Society of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (hereinafter as the “XUAR”), the Law Societyof Guangdong Provinceand the ChinaLegal Exchange Center, and co-organized by the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (hereinafter the “SCIA”) and other institutions, was held in Kashi,XUAR.

Wang Chen, President of China Law Society, Zumureti Wupuli, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress ofXUAR, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Chief Justice of Nepal, Sanjaya Rajaratnam, Attorney General of Sri Lanka, Nurserik Karimovich, Chairman of the Civil Judicial Committee of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan, Sharipov Nurserik Karimovich,Chairmanof theJudicial Division for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan,Yang Wanming,Member of the CPC Group and Vice President, Chairman of the First Circuit Court of the Supreme People’s Court of PRC, Miao Shengming, Vice-ministerial-level Acting Member of the Procuratorial Committee of theSupreme People’s Procuratorate of PRC, Director of the First Procuratorial Office of PRC,Dr.Yuan Gujie, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Committee of Guangdong, Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of Guangdong, President of the Law Society of Guangdong Province, Anniwaer Tuerxun, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of Kashi, Administrative Commissioner of Kashi Prefecture,Yin Baohu,DeputySecretary of Political, Legal Committee of CPC Committee of Guangdong, Secretary of the CPC Group, Executive Vice President of the Law Society of Guangdong,Ananda Mohan Bhattarai, Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Nursultan Betilesov, First DeputyHeadof the Judicial Administration of Kazakhstan, Bi Deguo,Executive DeputySecretary of the Political,Legal Committee of the CPC Committeeof XUAR, Party Secretary and Vice President of the Law Society of XUAR, and other officials attended the Forum and deliveredspeeches.

TheForumfocused onthe theme of“TheGovernance of the Rule-of- Law for theHigh-qualityDevelopment of the Belt and Road”, among which the transnational disputesresolutionbecame a hot topic for both domestic and foreign delegates. At the forum, Yang Wanming, Yuan Gujie and Anniwaer Tuerxun fully affirmed the significance of thecooperation of the SCIA Kashi Center by Guangdong and XUAR for serving the high-quality development of the Belt and Road, and they expressed that theSPC, Guangdong Province and Kashi Region of XUAR will continue to support thedevelopmentof the SCIA Kashi Center and jointlycontribute to the sound legal framework ofthe business environment of the Belt and Road.

At the Forum,Chen Mingguo,ViceChairman of the People's Government of XUAR,announced the Initiative on Deepening Cooperation on the Rule of Law for the Belt and Road Initiative.

During theSigning Ceremony of the Forum, SCIA signed theStrategic Cooperation Agreement on International Arbitrationwith theTashkent International Arbitration Center, and signed the CooperationAgreement on Diversified Resolution of International Commercial Disputes with International ADR Center of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Institute for the Development of Commercial Law and Practice of Sri Lanka, whichfurther deepeninginternational arbitration cooperation between China and Central and South Asian countries.

Elsie Leung, the Councilmemberof SCIA,Former DeputyDirectorof the Committee for the Hong KongBasic Law of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the First Secretary ofthe Justice of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,delivered a keynote address at the Forum on the topic of“The Role of Hong Kong in the BeltandRoad Legal Cooperation”.She pointed out that as a vital hubandlinkfor the Belt and Road, Hong Kong played an important role in promoting policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, trade facilitation, financial integration, and strengthening people-to-people bonds. She recalled her years of experiences in participating in rule-of-law cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong and said that the newly established SCIA Kashi Center will integrate the legal resources of the Greater Bay Area withXUAR, better promote rule-of-law cooperation between China and Central and South Asia, and further enhance the high-quality development of the Belt and Road.

During the plenary session of the Forum,Dr.Liu Xiaochun, President of SCIA,delivereda speech on the topic of“The Latest Development of International Arbitration in China and Business Environment ofthe Beltand Road”. He introduced the latest developments of China’s International Arbitration over the past four decadesafter reform and opening -up. He said that in the new stage of development,SCIA will strive to build SCIA Kashi Center, and will base Kashi, as the fulcrum,toshare the latest experiences and achievements of China’sinternationalarbitration development with the legal and business communities in CentralAsiaand South Asia, and jointly promote the development of a stable, fair, transparent and predictableworld-class business environment governed by a sound legal frameworkfor the Belt and Road, so as to promote international economic and trade exchanges, high-quality economic development andhigh-standard opening-up with better quality international arbitration services.