On September 8, 2017, the CIETAC Silk-Road Arbitration Center was established in Xi’an, Shaanxi. Chairman of CCPIT and Chairman of CIETAC Jiang Zengwei, and Vice Governor of the Shaanxi Province Wei Zengjun jointly unveiled the Silk Road Arbitration Service Center. The set-up of the new center is an important measure  by CIETAC to promote the “Belt and Road” construction and marks a firm step by CIETAC in its construction of commercial arbitration legal service in the Shaanxi Pilot Free Trade Zone. 

Chairman Jiang Zengwei highlighted in his speech that under the background of continuous development of China’s foreign commerce, the establishment of commercial legal service such as arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution means and the improvement of trade and investment measures serve as an effort to further strengthen the construction of China’s trade soft power, which were the intrinsic motivations of the establishment of the Silk Road Arbitration Center.

With the advancement of the “Belt and Road” construction, commercial exchanges between companies in the countries along the “Belt and Road” are getting more frequent. In the meantime, economic and trade disputes also increase rapidly. The fair and efficient resolution of disputes arising from the “Belt and Road” construction, and the protection of parties’ legitimate interests are significant in safeguarding the “Belt and Road” construction. The diversity of parties to the “Belt and Road” disputes, the complexity of legal disputes, and the complex needs for dispute resolution methods require higher standard for the dispute resolution mechanism. Arbitration has outstanding advantages to resolve the “Belt and Road” disputes based on its contractual nature, professionalism, confidentiality, efficiency, finality, and transnational enforceability.

Being the first commercial arbitration institution after the founding of the People's Republic of China, CIETAC has accumulated rich experiences in managing foreign-related cases and gained sound international reputation over its 61 years’ development, and has become a world-renowned arbitration institution. Xi’an, the starting point of the ancient Silk Road, is an important fulcrum to the economic cooperation and cultural communication along the “Belt and Road”, and has important strategic position and function. CIETAC’s establishment of the Silk Road Arbitration Center in Xi’an is a positive response to the construction of the “Belt and Road” and an important step to serve the construction of Shaanxi Pilot Free Trade Zone.

By establishing the Silk Road Arbitration Center, CIETAC will introduce rich commercial arbitration business resources to Shaanxi and regions along the “Belt and Road” on a full scale, to provide companies in Shanxi and along the Silk Road with high quality, efficient and convenient arbitration service and relevant legal services for foreign trade cooperation as an effort to jointly build an internationalized, legalized and convenient business environment. 

Besides, in order to further implement the major policy decisions of the establishment of China (Shaanxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter FTZ) by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, exploit respective advantages, and effectively advance the construction of the FTZ, a Memorandum of Cooperation between CCPIT and the Xian Municipal Government was signed on the same day. Secretary General of China Chamber of International Commerce Yu Jianlong on behalf of CCPIT, and Vice Secretary General of Shanxi Province Zhang Xiaoning on behalf of the Shaanxi Provincial Government, signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on the Advancement of the Construction of China (Shaanxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Chairman Jiang Zengwei, Vice Governor Wei Zengjun, Secretary General Wang Chengjie along with the relevant leaders in the administrative, judicial, and economic departments in Shaanxi and CCPIT attended the unveiling ceremony and witnessed the signing of the Memo.