Visionaries in arbitration congregate in Zhanjiang

Some 600 experts from across 15 countries and regions attended the Development and Exchange Conference on Belt & Road Arbitration in Zhanjiang on Jan 20, where they discussed more positive ways on offering transnational legal services under the initiative.

The conference was jointly organized by the Asia-Pacific Chinese Merchant (Macao) Arbitration Association, the Zhanjiang Court of International Arbitration and the China Beibu Gulf Arbitration Cooperative Federation.

A diverse showing of arbitral institutions, chambers of commerce, financial institutions, law firms, media and university representatives from America, Asia and Africa all attended to the event.

The Development and Exchange Conference on Belt & Road Arbitration takes place in Zhanjiang on Jan 20. [Photo/legaldaily.com.cn]

Apart from just sharing their past work experiences, the attendees also contributed ideas on establishing arbitral institutions in countries along the Belt & Road, and how these institutions would function and recruit arbitrators.

Wu Kefu, president of Zhanjiang Arbitration Commission, talked about how the conference will improve the arbitration system under the Belt & Road Initiative and how their ideas will enhance the credibility of arbitration.

Furthermore, Wu went on to comment on how Zhanjiang has already handled more than 1 million financial cases over the previous year, which was a tremendous growth rate nationally. Not to mention that more than 99 percent of clients accepted the arbitrated verdicts, which is valued at more than 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion).

Meanwhile, Zhanjiang Court of International Arbitration is the first to integrate internet and arbitration together to help relieve the geographic constraints. Clients can also choose any of 16 offices the court has set across the world to run their errands.

These practices were lauded by arbitrators from countries such as Pakistan, Mali and the South Korea. Fourteen foreign chambers of commerce have also struck cooperative agreements with Zhanjiang in hopes of bringing these advanced systems to their country and help with the construction of the Belt & Road Initiative.