English version translated by XU Xinyuan (Wayne)

(ifeng.com, HUNAN, reporter LIU Yan, FANG Dan) On Dec.12, 2020, the 1st Xiangjiang foreign-related legal forum was successfully held in Changsha, which was organized by Hunan Bar Association and Changsha Bar Association under the guidance of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Hunan Sub-council. LIU Changsong, Class II Inspector from Judicial Bureau of Hunan Province, YANG Jianwei, President of Hunan Bar Association, XUN Feizheng, Member of the CPC Committee and Deputy Director of the Changsha Judicial Bureau and Secretary of CPC Committee of the Changsha Lawyer Profession, WANG Donghua, Member of CPC Committee and Deputy Director of the Changsha Municipal Bureau of Commerce and Executive Deputy Director of the Office of the Preparatory Group for the Changsha Area of the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone attended the forum and delivered speech.

The theme of this forum is “the legal service of China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone”. LIAO Guanghui, Director of Office of Free Trade Zone of Department of Commerce of Hunan Province, CHEN Jun, Director of Industrial Clustering Promotion Division of Department of Industry and Information Technology of Hunan Province and LI Zhe, Deputy Director of Integrated Operations Division of Changsha Customs, discussed the policies on the topic “how Industry and Information Technology System can assist the establishment of China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone” and “how the Customs system can assist the establishment of China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone”. YANG Guohua, Professor from School of International Law, Tsinghua University and Executive Vice-President of the WTO Law Research Society of the China Law Society and Expert on WTO Negotiations in China, ZHANG Xiaojun, Professor and Dean of the School of International Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, and Secretary-General of the China-ASEAN Legal Research Center of the China Law Society, HONG Yonghong, Professor and Director of China-Africa Economic and Trade Law Institute of Xiangtan University Law School, delivered keynote speeches on the topics of “Free Trade Zone, TPP and RCEP”, “The challenges and solutions of legal service in the context of the establishment of China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone”, “China-Africa legal cooperation and the establishment of China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone”.

The forum pointed out that one of the important tasks of building the Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) is to embrace the world, benchmark international economic and trade rules and common practices, explore new concepts and systems such as “pre-access national treatment plus negative list”, accumulate experience in the negotiation of China’s bilateral and regional FTZs and investment agreements, and lay a solid foundation for participating in and leading the formulation of international rules. There are four major milestones in the establishment of the Pilot FTZs. They are the basic establishment of a foreign investment management system centered on negative-list management; the effective operation of a trade regulatory system focused on trade facilitation; the orderly promotion of financial system innovations aimed at the conversion of capital items and the opening up of the financial services industry; and the initial formation of a supervision system focused on during and after the process supervision as the core government functions.

ZHOU Shuhe, Director of Lawyers’ Work Department of Hunan Provincial Department of Justice, XUE Hongzhi and LI Hanying, Vice President of Hunan Bar Association, LI Yanjun, Deputy Secretary of CPC Group and Deputy Director of Yongzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, HE Mu, Director of Lawyers’ Work Department of Changsha Municipal Bureau of Justice, Li Zhe, Director of the Public Legal Services Management Department of Changsha Municipal Bureau of Justice, ZHOU Xiaofang, Specialized Deputy Secretary of CPC Committee of Changsha Bar Association, CHEN Haibin, Supervisor of the Hunan Bar Association, ZHAO Haiyang, Supervisor of the Hunan Bar Association and Head of Department of the Management Committee of Changsha Municipal Lawyers’ Association attended the forum. Zhao Haiyang, supervisor of the Hunan Bar Association and supervisor of the Changsha Bar Association, as well as officials from the relevant departments of Yueyang Customs and the Administrative Committee of the Economic Development Zone of Yueyang, attended the forum. Some invited enterprise representatives, all members of foreign-related and anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition committee of Hunan Bar association, all members of foreign-related committee of Changsha bar association, all members of foreign-related legal service lawyer training course of Hunan bar association, all members of foreign-related lawyer training course of Changsha bar association, representatives of all city and state bar associations, lawyers’ representatives and special guests, over 250 people participated in the on-site forum, and 16,000 people watched the online livestream broadcasting.

The forum also invited FENG Haibin, partner of Shanghai LANDING Law Offices and CAO Yongming, partner of Beijing Jincheng Tongda & Neal, who have rich practical experience, to share their practical experience on the topics of Customs Compliance Practice in Pilot Free Trade Zone and International Trade Legal Practice under the System of Pilot FTZ respectively. Yin Xiangnan, Director of Foreign-related Committee of Hunan Bar Association, Zhou Yuan, Director of Foreign-related Committee of Changsha Bar Association, and some of the award-winning authors of excellent papers also made wonderful sharing. The forum also collected more than 30 high quality professional papers from foreign-related lawyers in Hunan, covering the construction of the legal system of the Pilot FTZ, China-Africa economic and trade cooperation, and research and discussion on the system of the FTZ, etc. After rigorous evaluation, a total of 17 papers were awarded with various kinds of prizes.

The approval of Hunan pilot FTZ is both opportunities and challenges for Hunan lawyers profession. Hunan lawyers will further improve the political position, practice actively and strive to serve the overall situation in the national mission, to enhance the effectiveness through the innovation mechanism, to achieve new leaps in the training of talents, providing accurate and efficient legal service for the establishment of Hunan Pilot FTZ.