Deeper ties encouraged for legal services co-op

Chinese judicial authorities encouraged deeper cooperation and enhanced talent cultivation in legal service as well as a more open legal service environment among Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states.

"The ministry of justice of each SCO member country should strengthen cooperation and endeavor to make plans to establish a common understanding of legal services," said Chinese Minister of Justice Fu Zhenghua at the SCO Countries Forum on Legal Services, which closed on Thursday. "They should also provide high-level legal protection for economic and trade development."

He stressed the fields in which legal services should increase efforts to include trade in goods, services, transfer of patent technology and new industries to optimize the business environment and protect the legitimate rights and interests of people.

"The forum is a key platform to share insights regarding this arena," Fu said.

According to Fu, 303 representative institutions of 232 law firms from 22 countries and regions have been established in China.

"We welcome companies in member countries to set up offices and carry out legal services in China, and encourage Chinese law firms to develop overseas," he said.

Established in 2001, SCO has eight member states-China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia and Belarus are SCO observer states.

The organization has been engaged in multilateral cooperation in legal service, economy, culture and trade for global sustainable development.

According to Nurlan Akkoshkarov, deputy secretary-general of the SCO Secretariat, the total population of the member countries is over 3 billion, nearly half the global population.

In addition, the total GDP of the SCO member states was $18.4 trillion in 2018, almost 22.5 percent of the global GDP. Further, foreign trade between SCO member states was valued at $6.3 trillion, up 17 percent from 2017.

"Legal cooperation will be a vital part of the implementation of the SCO charter and the SCO Development Strategy until 2025," when the strategy is expected to be completed, said Akkoshkarov.

In the era of e-commerce, Akkoshkarov called for the formation of a series of legal provisions and documents to safeguard e-commerce cooperation between the SCO members and boost the productivity of the market.

One of the significant moves will be preparing for the development of an international multimodal transportation center, he added.

Abdumanon Kholikzoda, the first deputy minister of justice in Tajikistan, said he expected more meetings and forums will be held to cope with challenges during the organization's development.

He also recommended setting up a renewable, unified database of SCO legislation.