DSJ leads delegation of young lawyers to visit Foshan to seize opportunities in GBA (with photos/video)
18.11.2023

The Deputy Secretary for Justice, Mr Cheung Kwok-kwan, and his delegation of young lawyers concluded their visit in Foshan today (November 18). In the morning, Mr Cheung and his delegation visited the Foshan Hong Kong-Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Center and exchanged views with Hong Kong and Macao young entrepreneurs. Through the representatives' sharing of their start-up experiences, the delegation gained a deeper understanding of the opportunities brought about by the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) for Hong Kong as a centre for legal and dispute resolution services. Aiming to help young people from Hong Kong and Macao to seize the opportunities in the GBA, the Center has incubated a significant number of projects by Hong Kong and Macao young entrepreneurs since it commenced operation, and injected new momentum to the high-quality development in the GBA. The delegation then called on the Foshan Lawyers Association and met with the Chief of Justice Bureau of Foshan Municipality, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Justice Bureau, Mr Liu Zuhui, to discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by Hong Kong legal practitioners practising in the GBA, and to learn more about the collaboration between Hong Kong lawyers in the GBA and Mainland lawyers in handling different types of foreign-related cases. Mr Cheung mentioned that Foshan has been striving to enhance its foreign-related legal services to support the upgrading and transformation of the manufacturing sector in Foshan. He remarked that the Policy Address this year announced that Hong Kong will endeavour to establish the Hong Kong International Legal Talents Training Academy. Capitalising on Hong Kong's bilingual common law system and international status, the Academy will provide training for talents in the practice of foreign-related legal affairs for the country. Mr Cheung expressed his gratitude to the Justice Bureau of Foshan Municipality and the Foshan Lawyers Association in particular for their strong support to Hong Kong legal practitioners in setting up practice there, and their facilitation and support measures for Hong Kong solicitors and barristers who have obtained the qualification to practise in the GBA to practise in Foshan, such as the promulgation of working guidelines for practice applications, and the setting up of a dedicated communication channel. He hoped that co-operation between Hong Kong and Foshan could be strengthened to assist enterprises to go global and to attract foreign investment to the city, thereby fostering robust growth in the GBA. After arriving in Foshan yesterday (November 17), the delegation visited the Midea Group's headquarters to learn more about how the enterprise makes use of technology to promote its business development, and how Hong Kong's legal professional services, which are in line with international standards, could provide strong support for cross-regional business expansion of the enterprises in the GBA. They also had dinner with Member of the Standing Committee of the Foshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Head of the United Front Work Department of the Foshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China Mr Ding Xifeng. In concluding this GBA visit, Mr Cheung said that together with the visit to Huizhou in September, the Department of Justice's first delegation of young lawyers visited three Mainland cities in the GBA and called on the courts, law-related authorities, major enterprises and youth entrepreneurship bases, as well as conducted exchanges with the Mainland legal sector. He trusted that the visits would enable Hong Kong young lawyers to better understand that the high-quality national development indeed offers the best opportunities for Hong Kong. He emphasised that the Department of Justice would continue to spare no effort to take forward measures to promote interfaces of the legal systems and exchanges of talents in the GBA, with a view to jointly pursuing win-win co-operation in the construction of the GBA. He wished that Hong Kong young lawyers would broaden their horizons and better understand the impact of technology on how legal services would support the development of different industries. Given Hong Kong's unique advantages of enjoying the strong support of the motherland while being closely connected to the world under "one country, two systems", he also urged them to connect their career development with the overall national development and maintain close liaison with the Mainland legal sector, so as to support the development of the GBA's first-class internationalised business environment based on the rule of law, and jointly promote high-quality national development and contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Ends/Saturday, November 18, 2023 Issued at HKT 21:59 NNNN