(Conference Venue)

On 15 September 2023, a special event on “Southeast Asia Investment and International Arbitration” was successfully held in Beijing, which was co-hosted by China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, and co-organized by Hylands Law Firm and Singapore Rajah & Tann Law Firm. The event was supported by Wolters Kluwer, WELEGAL Law Alliance, Legal Vision and Intelligeast Legal New Media. Opening speeches were delivered by Gu Yan, Vice President of the Arbitration Court of CIETAC, Shi Yonghong, Vice President of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, Zhao Hong, former Chairman of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Professor of Peking University Law School, as well as Jiang Qi, Chairman of the National Board of Directors of Hylands Law Firm. Liu Hong, Director of Hylands Law Firm, attended the opening ceremony.

(Vice President Gu Yan delivered an opening speech)

Vice President Gu Yan said that this year marks the concept’s 10th anniversary of building a closer China-ASEAN community of destiny. Over the past ten years, the level of China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation has been continuously upgraded and fruitful results have been achieved. In this context, economic and trade exchanges among countries will become more and more frequent, and all kinds of commercial disputes are also showing a tendency to occur more often. In recent years, CIETAC attaches great importance to the friendly cooperation with dispute resolution institutions in Southeast Asian countries and is committed to providing high-quality dispute resolution services for parties from relevant countries. In the past five years, CIETAC has accepted 247 arbitration cases involving ten ASEAN countries, with the subject matter of dispute amounting to RMB 7.9 billion. Through the establishment of the CIETAC ASEAN Court Centre and holding RCEP and ASEAN International Arbitration Summit Forum, CIETAC continues to enhance its understanding with Southeast Asian arbitration and legal community, and then, protects and safeguards China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation. In the future, CIETAC hopes to work with all parties to attach importance to the implement of science and technology in resolving relevant commercial disputes, strengthen research on key areas of China-ASEAN cooperation, and work together to build a closer China-ASEAN arbitration cooperation community.

(From left to right, top to bottom: Vice President Shi Yonghong, Professor Zhao Hong, Chairman Jiang Qi, Senior Counsel Pan Jianwen.)

In their opening speeches, Vice President Shi Yonghong, Professor Zhao Hong and Chairman Jiang Qi all affirmed the positive significance of this event and the Arbitration Week series events, and put forward their own ideas on the prospects of regional development and the future of dispute resolution in Southeast Asian region. Subsequently, Pan Jianwen, Senior Counsel, Deputy Managing Partner and Head of International Arbitration Business of Rajah & Tann Law Firm, delivered a speech on “Future Trends in Arbitration Disputes Focus”.

The event was mainly consisted of two Panel discussions. The first Panel was moderated by Zhu Zhitong, Senior Partner of Hylands Law Firm. Lu Fei, Director of Business Development Department of CIETAC, Zhou Xueqin, Deputy Chief Economist and General Manager of Risk and Compliance Department of Power China International Group Limited, Shen Zhixiong, Director of Construction and Projects Department of Rajah & Tann Law Firm and English Barrister, and Shi Lulu, Director of Legal and Compliance Department of China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co., Ltd., talked about “New Highlights, Trends and Challenges in Southeast Asia’s Construction and Investments”.

(From left to right: Senior Partner Zhu Zhitong, General Manager Zhou Xueqin, Director Shen Zhixiong, Director Lu Fei, Director Shi Lulu)

Director Lu Fei introduced the work carried out by CIETAC in recent years, such as the acceptance of cases and various events involving Southeast Asian countries. She shared the first case heard by CIETAC ASEAN Trial Centre and the enforcement of CIETAC’s arbitral awards in Southeast Asian countries. Meanwhile, in view of the active outbound investment and the increasing amount of overseas construction projects, she further shared the common issues and legal risk prevention countermeasures in dispute resolution and the practice of CIETAC in effectively resolving construction disputes by using the Construction Engineering Dispute Evaluation System and other methods.

(Director Lu Fei, delivered a speech)

The second Panel was moderated by Ma Tianyu, Consultant of Herbert Smith Freehills Kewei (FTZ) Joint Operation. Yu Mang, General Manager of Legal and Regulatory Affairs Department of China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd., Zhu Yinqi, Deputy General Manager and General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of China Water Affairs Group Limited, Qiu Jianxiong, Global Co-Head of Litigation and Arbitration Practice for Engineering Infrastructure of Herbert Smith Freehills Kewei (FTZ) Joint Operation, and Zheng Weiyuan, Co-Head of Investment Disputes Practice Department of Rajah & Tann Law Firm and Singapore Barrister and England & Wales Solicitor (Non-Practicing), shared their views on “Doing Business in Southeast Asia: How to Prevent Risks and Resolve Disputes” in this session.

(From left to right: General Manager Yu Mang, Deputy General Manager Zhu Yinqi, Director Qiu Jianxiong, Barrister Zheng Weiyuan)

At the end of the Conference, Xu Yu, Director of Management Committee of Hylands Law Firm, made a closing speech.

Nearly 2,000 people from arbitration, business, legal and academic communities attended the Conference online and offline. The Conference was compact and pragmatic, speakers’ speeches and discussions provided useful practical experiences and guiding suggestions on how to build, invest and carry out risk prevention in Southeast Asia. The Conference received enthusiastic response and achieved a complete success. CIETAC will further leverage the advantages of expert resources and platforms such as China Arbitration Week to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with the legal, business and academic communities, work hand in hand to continuously improve the level of dispute resolution services, and contribute to resolving disputes properly and developing China-ASEAN economy and trade.