Shanghai Judicial Bureau Director Wu Jianyong: How to promote the creation of a first-class business environment through high-quality legal services?
On the morning of September 5th, the International Forum on Legal Services, hosted by the Ministry of Justice and hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice and the Shanghai Institute of Political Science and Law, was successfully held in Shanghai. The forum theme is "Deepening Legal Service Cooperation to Assist Regional Economic and Trade Development", divided into two topics: "Legal Services and Economic and Trade Cooperation" and "Using Modern Technology to Promote Modernization of Legal Services".
In the sharing on "Legal Services and Economic and Trade Cooperation", Wu Jianyong, Director of the Shanghai Judicial Bureau, said that Shanghai has always regarded creating a market-oriented, rule of law, and internationalized first-class business environment as a major strategic task, and has implemented six rounds of action plans to optimize the business environment so far. In recent years, China's ranking in the World Bank's business environment assessment has significantly increased, and Shanghai, as an important sample city, has played a positive role. In this process, Shanghai has always regarded legal services as an important support and guarantee for creating a first-class business environment, guiding legal service institutions and personnel to actively participate in the formulation and implementation of domestic economic and trade system rules, and promoting the improvement of institutional openness; Actively participate in the formulation and improvement of international economic and trade rules, and help maintain a diverse and stable international economic pattern and economic and trade relations.
At the same time, Shanghai continues to promote the reform and development of industries such as lawyers, notarization, arbitration, and mediation, and expand opening up, continuously improving its legal service capabilities. At present, the ratio of lawyers to permanent residents in the city is close to 15, reaching the level of developed countries in the world. In order to enhance the ability of foreign-related legal services, Shanghai began implementing an open policy for overseas law firms at the beginning of this century, and has now become the region with the most representative offices established by overseas law firms in China; Since 2014, Shanghai has implemented a joint venture and mutual assignment of legal advisors between domestic and foreign law firms, further enhancing its one-stop and cross jurisdictional legal service capabilities.
In recent years, Shanghai has also actively promoted the construction of a global oriented Asia Pacific arbitration center. The Shanghai Arbitration Commission and the Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission have employed 870 foreigners from 118 countries and regions as arbitrators, who can use more than 40 languages to adjudicate cases, including 7 SCO member countries and 85 countries along the "the Belt and Road"; The arbitration and mediation institutions of the World Intellectual Property Organization and four world-renowned arbitration institutions have also established branches or representative offices in Shanghai. Shanghai has become one of the cities with the richest resources of arbitration institutions in the world and also ranks among the most popular international arbitration destinations.
Now, Shanghai is accelerating the construction of an international legal service center that is compatible with the world-class business environment and high standard economic and trade cooperation. At present, Pudong, Hongqiao, and the central activity areas of the city are gathering various high-quality legal service resources. Huangpu District is deeply cultivating financial legal services, Xuhui District is promoting the construction of an international intellectual property legal service highland, Songjiang District is exploring the creation of legal services covering the entire life cycle of science and technology innovation enterprises, and other districts are also providing targeted legal services through entering parks and enterprises. The Shanghai International Arbitration Summit Forum, Lujiazui Rule of Law Forum, Bund Financial Law Forum and other activities have also effectively promoted legal service exchange and cooperation. In addition, Shanghai has also actively guided legal service institutions to "go global", setting up 14 law firm branches and 39 law firm offices in SCO and the Belt and Road countries and regions alone.
Wu Jianyong said, "At the same time, we sincerely welcome overseas legal service institutions to choose Shanghai and expand their presence in Shanghai. We will always uphold the 'Shanghai spirit', continue to deepen legal service cooperation, and better assist in the high-quality development of regional economy and trade."
