An exhibition on the achievements made by Qianhai in the rule of law over the past nine years kicked off at Qianhai Legal Building on Nov. 6, winning praises from visitors.
Innovation achievements Qianhai has made in the fields of rule of law, judiciary reform, legal services and intellectual property protection are exhibited to visitors through words, pictures, material objects and new media channels.
Qianhai was commissioned to make itself into a pilot demonstration area of legal construction with Chinese characteristics by the State Council in the General Development Plan of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Services Cooperation Zone on Aug. 26, 2010.
Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Services Cooperation Zone Authority, the statutory governing body of the free trade zone, has developed a more flexible administration system compared to the other conventional government agencies by delegating administrative power on land resources, investment approval, urban construction and other fields. Some 81 public affairs regarding the market supervision, local taxation, public security, human resources and more are all handled at the Electronic One-stop Service Center of Qianhai, greatly simplifying the administrative procedures for enterprises in the free trade area.
With two-thirds of its members from Hong Kong, the Qianhai Rule of Law Consulting Committee, set up Aug. 6, 2012, has been playing an important role in Qianhai’s legal construction over the years.
Qianhai is now home to a number of important courts and specialized courts at national and municipal levels, including the First Circuit Court, China International Commercial Court and the Belt and Road Business Dispute Settlement Center of China’s Supreme People’s Court, Shenzhen Intellectual Property Court and Shenzhen Financial Tribunal, as well as the Shenzhen court of Guangzhou Municipal Maritime Court. The Qianhai court has formed a judicial system that allows applicable extra-territorial laws in the handling of foreign-related cases and disputes. Now the Qianhai court has appointed 32 people’s assessors from Hong Kong, who have been involved in the handling of 266 cases related to Hong Kong businesspeople.
The only two foreign-funded law firms in South China have set up offices in Qianhai, and seven of the country’s 11 legal associations formed by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao law firms have settled here. So far, Qianhai has 32 legal firms and is home to China’s first international arbitration center.
Currently, Qianhai is the only area in the country that has a judicial network of specialized courts, including business, finance, intellectual property and maritime. With the support of the National People’s Congress and the Ministry of Justice, Shenzhen Qianhai Belt & Road Legal Services Federation has been initiated to serve Chinese-speaking lawyers from around the world.
Over the past few years, Qianhai has released a series of innovation regulations and more than 50 policies on various issues such as cross-border loan, foreign funded equity investment and foreign investment.
The Qianhai authority aimed to continuously improve the area’s business environment to enhance its competiveness by rolling out 32 policies regarding the business environment reform.
In the “Doing Business 2019” released by the World Bank, Qianhai was ranked third in the efficiency of contract execution, low business operation cost and the legal environment. China was ranked 46th as a whole.
Qianhai has also taken the lead in formulating the first rule of law index of China’s free trade zones and areas, and in 2018 it scored 80.48 points out of 100 in a rule of law index compiled by the national rule of law research center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It was up from 78.42 points Qianhai scored in 2017.
