The fourth Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Legal Departments Joint Conference was held online in Hong Kong today, which achieved good progress in areas including mediation, arbitration and the support for Hong Kong and Macau lawyers practising in the GBA's nine Mainland cities. It also featured an in-depth exchange among the legal departments of the three places.

Secretary for Justice Paul Lam and Deputy Secretary Cheung Kwok-kwan attended the conference.

As Chairman of the Greater Bay Area Task Force to be established by the Department of Justice, Mr Cheung said the conference aims to strengthen the legal exchanges and collaboration among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, thereby promoting high-quality developments in the bay area.

The three parties then endorsed the Greater Bay Area Cross-Boundary Disputes Mediation Model Rules to facilitate further alignment of the mediation mechanisms in the three places.

Mr Cheung explained that the mediation model rules, complementing the Greater Bay Area Mediator Accreditation Standards and the Greater Bay Area Mediator Code of Conduct Best Practice endorsed and implemented last year, will serve as a reference for the mediation institutions and mediators in the bay area to voluntarily adopt.

Looking ahead, the three parties will actively pursue the establishment of a panel of GBA mediators. The setting of GBA mediation standards will facilitate the use of mediation by the business sector and the public in the three places to resolve cross-boundary disputes in the bay area.

On arbitration, the three sides explored matters relating to the establishment of a panel of recommended GBA arbitrators and discussed the qualification process, management of the panel and the review mechanism, with the common goal of promoting the complementary strengths of arbitration resources and the harmonisation of arbitration mechanisms in the three places.

Their legal departments will continue to explore and study relevant matters at the working level for better preparation for future work.

Furthermore, the three parties exchanged views on matters such as the support for Hong Kong and Macau lawyers practising in the nine Mainland cities of the bay area as well as the capacity building for staff of the three legal departments.

Mr Lam was pleased to learn that Hong Kong and Macau lawyers have made good progress in obtaining practice certificates and beginning practice in the nine Mainland cities. He was grateful to Guangdong Province's Department of Justice for its great efforts.

Concluding the meeting, Mr Lam stressed that the continual close collaboration among the legal departments of the three places has not been disrupted despite the COVID-19 epidemic, adding that the fruitful results achieved through the conference have made significant contributions to the alignment and harmonisation of rules and mechanisms in the bay area.