CEPA opens market for legal services
 Updated: 2004-01-06 07:47

The Ministry of Justice issued five decrees on November 30 to open the mainland's legal service market to Hong Kong law professionals under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

As of January 1, Hong Kong citizens are allowed to sit for a unified judicial examination, the passing of which gives them the right to conduct non-litigation business on the mainland. As well, mainland law firms have been empowered to appoint Hong Kong lawyers as legal consultants.

These steps provide Hong Kong lawyers easy access to the mainland market.

Meanwhile, legal service co-operation agreements the SAR has signed with major mainland cities will enable legal professionals on both sides to handle specific problems with greater flexibility.

It will no longer be necessary for them to ask for mediation from the central government every time a dispute arises. This development will bring the legal sector more in line with market principles.

At present there are more than 40 Hong Kong legal firms with offices on the mainland, the majority of which are located in the most economically developed cities ?Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen ?where most foreign investments are concentrated. Under CEPA, Hong Kong's legal sector will enjoy a broader platform and more business opportunities.

In fact, under economic globalization, the mainland's legal service market must be opened up as soon as possible in order to adapt itself to the situation in which an increasing number of foreign investors are coming in and non-State enterprises are going out.

Under these circumstances there is ample room for co-operation between the two legal service sectors.

Hong Kong is one of the most important legal service centres in the Asia-Pacific region, boasting a large pool of professionals who are well versed in the legal cultures of both East and West.

And following China's entry to the World Trade Organization, the mainland needs an enormous amount of legal expertise in international trade, enterprise financing, financial business, securities, intellectual properties and information technology. These are the professional realms most familiar to Hong Kong's legal experts.

Co-operation between Hong Kong legal professionals and their mainland counterparts will strengthen and enhance the quality of legal services in both places and create a team of legal experts that is competitive enough to cope with both the world market under economic globalization and the economic boom on the mainland.

Much has yet to be done for mainland and Hong Kong lawyers to take advantage of the business opportunities brought about by CEPA, such as studying the markets in both places, stepping up communication within the trade, mutual recognition of legal qualifications, and establishing a service network that encompasses both places.

Legal workers on both sides ought to work closely together to explore the subject.

Article 24, section 8 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and Article 5 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services form the foundation of CEPA's opening of its service market, including legal services, to the SAR.

Before the mainland is able to open up its market completely, learning from each other's experience in service industries will help it face the challenges of economic globalization and adapt to the rules of the game in a timely fashion.

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