On the morning of November 25, 2020, Wang Chengjie, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of CIETAC led a delegation to visit the Chongqing Higher People's Court (“Chongqing Higher Court”), and had in-depth discussions with Sun Hailong, Party Leadership Group Member and Vice President of the Chongqing Higher Court and other colleagues on the connection between litigation and arbitration from the perspective of the diversified dispute resolution, the innovation and development of justice and diversified dispute resolutions, the improvement of Chongqing business environment for the inland open economy and other issues.  

Secretary-General Wang Chengjie introduced the process of CIETAC becoming the first-class international arbitration institution, by reviewing the history of CIETAC and comparing the development data of international arbitration institutions and CIETAC in the past two years. He also expressed the importance of CIETAC in promoting the business environment. He mentioned that, as the earliest international arbitration institution in China, with the development of more than 60 years, CIETAC had gained plenty of experience in arbitration, especially the foreign-related arbitration. Meanwhile, through the construction of international arbitration credibility, the arbitral awards of CIETAC could be widely recognized by the courts of various jurisdictions and countries. In addition, Secretary-General Wang said that CIETAC had always adhered to the innovation in the field of diversified dispute resolution, such as establishing the earliest domain name dispute resolution mechanism in China, adopting the intermediate review system in the construction field, and improving the online hearing system and issuing the procedure guidelines during the pandemic. The experience gained by CIETAC in the process of innovation and settlement of foreign-related disputes would continuously serve the construction of Chongqing to be the western dispute settlement highland.

Vice President Sun Hailong first welcomed Secretary-General Wang Chengjie and his delegation. He said that, Chongqing courts at all levels adhered to the spirit of innovation, for example, the earliest Economy Court in China was established in Chongqing, and the centralized jurisdiction of the Bankruptcy Court of Chongqing was also the first in China. As the banner of the arbitration in China, CIETAC would produce brand effects, and its advanced rules and practice would be of great significance to the development of dispute resolution. In terms of improving the business environment, he pointed out that the key to improving the business environment was to enhance the sense of gain of the market entities. This was an interconnected process. Without the diversification and credibility of the back-end dispute resolution, there would be no prosperity in front-end investment, finance and trade. Therefore, he hoped that the relation between justice and arbitration would be supportive and guiding, so as to better serve the legalization construction of Liangjiang New Area and the whole Chongqing area from the judicial and legal aspects, and improve the business environment.

In the discussion, both sides reached a broad consensus on actively introducing and adopting the advanced international rules and practices, broadening dispute resolution channels and enriching dispute resolution methods, strengthening the connection between litigation and arbitration from the perspective of diversified dispute resolution as well as the cooperation between CIETAC and Chongqing courts at all levels, and promoting the business environment in the Southwest China.

Wang Ruicheng, Secretary-General of CIETAC Southwest Sub-Commission, Yu Zhiqiang, Member of the Judicial Committee of the Chongqing Higher Court and Chief Judge of the Third Civil Trial Division, Zhao Yonghua, Deputy Chief Judge of the First Case Filing Division of the Chongqing Higher Court, Zhao ZhiQiang, Chief Judge of the Third Civil Trial Division of the Chongqing First Intermediate People’s Court, Jia Ke, Party Leadership Group Member and Vice President of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area People’s Court (Chongqing Free Trade Zone People’s Court) and other colleagues attended this discussion.