On 1 july, the henan province legal service centre for foreign affairs, located on the second floor of the zhengzhou area integrated service centre in the free trade pilot zone of china (henan), welcomed the semi-annual examination. As the country's first provincial legal service centre for foreign nationals, over 6,400 foreign legal services have been provided, with a 95 per cent rating rate, as a “bridge” connecting the world to henan。
Strengthening foreign legal services is a necessary option for escorting enterprises to better cope with the risks of going out to sea. A series of landmark events were marked by the trajectories of the upgrade of henan's foreign legal services: in the first time in the country, a document was published on behalf of the office of the provincial council and the office of the provincial government “two offices” to strengthen the work of the foreign legal services; the ministry of justice has held a seminar on foreign legal services。
How does henan play foreign legal service? What further avenues remain for building a system of foreign legal services that is commensurate with high-quality development and high-level openness requirements? With these questions in mind, the journalists interviewed。
Where's the bottom line
In the eastern economic corridor of thailand, a new material enterprise from loyang, henan, was set up to build rongwena. In 2020, the enterprise responded to the “one-way road” initiative, setting up its first overseas production base with a multi-generic, multi-specified and multi-model molecular screening capacity. With the launch of the long ii project in thailand, the construction of longwena's overseas molecular screening capacity amounted to 24 million tons, making it an excellent representative of henan enterprises。
However, even such a powerful enterprise would not be able to escape the “challenge of growth” abroad. “on the one hand is the growing revenue from offshore sales and the increasing share of revenue earned, and on the other hand, the differences in legal systems, trade policies and international standards of compliance from different countries.” the secretary of the board of directors of the company spoke openly。
Growing up pains, mapping the demand for corporate protection of the law. At that point, a local law firm, henan space-based law office, entered their view. “we provide a package of legal services around cross-border investment and plant-building, export trade and management of intellectual property rights abroad, internationalization compliance, etc., to help this enterprise enter the critical period of global market development and power allocation, and to be more confident in its ability to travel beyond the surface to international markets.” according to zhao ko, a lawyer at the law firm。
Since last year, i have shown strong resilience to foreign trade in the face of global economic uncertainty. Data show that in 2024, henan's total value of foreign trade exports and imports amounted to rmb 82,017 million, an increase of 1. 2 per cent over the same period. In the first five months of this year, our province's foreign trade exports and imports increased by 34. 3 billion yuan, a 27 per cent increase over the same period. Foreign trade was at a new high level during the same period of the previous year, and it rose at the third highest rate in the country and the first in the centre. The internationalization of henan enterprises has accelerated。
The extent of the “winds” surfing overseas is the depth of the demand for foreign legal services. “looking forward to working with more professional legal institutions”, “looking forward to not going north to seek a lawyer or even abroad” ... The call for business is urgent。
Openness goes further, and the rule of law for foreigners goes further. “legal services involving foreign countries are an important part of the rule of law system involving foreign countries.” according to lee hodong, an assistant researcher at the institute of legal studies of the provincial academy of social sciences, in the process of comprehensive expansion of external openness in henan, it is extremely important and urgent to upgrade the capacity of foreign legal services: “accelerating the building of a foreign legal system that is compatible with high-quality development and high-level requirements for openness, and raising the level of foreign legal services, is a challenge that we must make.”
Foreign legal services go hand in hand with openness。
In the past year, the provincial councils of justice have conducted intensive seminars, inviting the provincial development and reform commissions, the provincial business offices and others to conduct in-depth exchanges between gays and heads of foreign-related enterprises and legal services, and to study the situation in the advanced regions of shanghai, guangdong and zhengzhou。
In september last year, after three rounds of extensive consultations with 23 direct provincial units, 15 foreign-related enterprises and 32 legal institutions, my province issued a document on strengthening the work of foreign-related legal services in the name of the “two offices” of the provincial councils and provincial government offices, drawing a clear blueprint for “building a new high ground for foreign-related legal services in the central region”. The province will be guided by the creation of high-quality institutions and platforms for foreign legal services, based on the introduction of a cadre of highly qualified personnel, with a focus on the overall improvement of the quality and effectiveness of foreign legal services, guaranteed by increased support for work and accelerated upgrading of foreign legal services。
“henan's adverse foreign trade curve is a `hard verification power', and the urgent need for companies to go to sea is `internally dynamic', and my foreign legal services work has its foundations, driven by the high profile of provincial councils and provincial governments.” lee hodong argues。
Two: how does the supply and demand platform work
On the one hand, there is a growing demand for access to the sea, and on the other hand, there is a continuous optimized supply of services. How to achieve precision matches is a key proposition for improving the quality of foreign legal services。
On 30 june, the telephone call for consultation in the legal services centre for foreign affairs in henan province (hereinafter referred to as “the centre”) came to a large number of people for business. “the staff is very professional, listening to them, i don't have to `black the river' anymore!” said mr. Lee, who has just finished consulting。
The establishment of this centre stems from the awkward reality of the past。
“in our discussions with businesses, we find that they deal with matters of foreign interest, often requiring the transfer of contacts to law firms outside or even outside the province. This is not a `scrambling', but a lack of knowledge of local services.” the director of the public legal service of the provincial department of justice, schchemetan, said that building an efficient, professional, one-stop platform is imperative。
On 31 december last year, the centre was inaugurated on a trial basis, and there are currently 10 windows offering eight services, such as counselling for foreign lawyers, international commercial arbitration, notarization, commercial conciliation, enterprise risk management, extraterritorial legal identification, consular authentication/certificate additionality, and litigation orientation, to achieve “one entry, many functions”。
The cloud service works simultaneously. The henan network of foreign-related legal services has been launched to connect with the network of officials at all levels of the commercial and judicial administration; additional sections of foreign-related legal services have been added to such platforms as zheng zheng zheng qian; lists of foreign-related law firms, foreign-related lawyers and foreign-related enterprises in parts of henan province have been published in a timely manner, with a full display of relevant information to help match demand and supply ... And legal services in foreign-related areas have gradually progressed towards full-time and full-time coverage。
In-depth knowledge, you can supply it with precision。
In march of this year, the provincial department of justice, together with the department of commerce and industry and the provincial chamber of commerce and industry, organized a high-quality supply-and-demand match-making meeting for private enterprises with the help of foreign legal services。
The exchange was more “flaming” than anticipated: representatives of over 40 enterprises, such as pastoral foods inc. And henan tianchang satellite technology ltd., were in direct demand, and more than 20 legal services, such as henan wenfeng law office, huang hae notary office of zhengzhou city and zhengzhou arbitration centre, were promoted, meeting rooms were added on an ad hoc basis and exchanges were held for nearly two hours. “the business is not without demand, we are not without services, there is no opportunity for such a thorough interface!” participants spoke out。
The effectiveness of precision alignment is demonstrated by efficient service delivery。
Through due diligence by a lawyer, a construction company discovers that the partner has a debt dispute, decisively terminates its cooperation and avoids a loss of $2 million; a trading company enters into a contract for the sale of goods with a foreign company, and after the arrival of the goods in hong kong, the other party delays payment for performance because of business difficulties. With the assistance of the centre, the company effectively defends its legitimate rights and interests by negotiating, concluding supplementary agreements and applying for property preservation。
A series of figures is supported by market recognition of henan's foreign legal services: last year, against the backdrop of overall industry pressure, the volume of foreign legal services handled by henan lawyers increased by 264 per cent over the same period, and business income increased by 60 per cent over the same period. We have trained 41 foreign notaries, 352 foreign notaries, processed 140,000 foreign notaries and sent them to more than 130 countries and territories, and received more than 30 exchange missions at all levels。
Three questions: how can foreign talent grow
On 22 june, a training course on the theme “german book of chinese enterprises seaing”, organized jointly by the provincial bar association, the provincial legal service centre for foreign affairs, and the zhengzhou city bar association, was held in zhengzhou, where the founder of the german law firm kgs was invited to speak and share the high-frequency legal risks faced by chinese companies going out to sea. Prior to this, a series of chinese and south-east asian and african lectures had been given to japan and south-east asia, which had directly targeted foreign firms to improve the ability of lawyers to engage in foreign legal services。
Normalization and precision training reflect the high priority that i have given to the rule of law abroad。
Accelerating the development of foreign-related rule-of-law talent is key to doing the right thing. In recent years, henan has seen the emergence of a number of law firms offering quality foreign legal services. However, it is still clear. In comparison to the developed regions, henan has a small number of foreign legal services, a low starting point for foreign lawyers, a scarcity of multilingual lawyers, a low level of expertise in high-end operations such as international arbitration, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and emerging areas such as cross-border data compliance, artificial intelligence, intellectual property rights, etc., which make it difficult to meet our high level of openness。
I'll take you to the nest。
Last year, liang ying zhou zhou zhi chen qi yi (jung state) associate law office and kimber dynasty co-law associates (jung state) obtained a partnership licence to practice as our first partner law firm in hong kong and hong kong, respectively, and introduced a team of lawyers with an international perspective to provide high-end services at the “door to home” to open a new situation where we worked with hong kong australian lawyers。
In order to develop a politically committed, knowledgeable body of foreign lawyers with extensive experience in handling cases, the provincial bar association has organized a series of training courses for distinguished foreign lawyers at higher educational institutions outside the province, as well as a “legal forum for foreign countries” “study course on international arbitration practice”; 35 law firms have been selected into the pool of resources of foreign lawyers, and 803 lawyers have been selected into the pool of foreign lawyers (of whom 91 are military officers and 111 are cadres of foreign lawyers), and a structured and well-established team of qualified “goosells” has been set up to serve as a model leader。
“water storage” can solve the root causes。
On 23 june, the provincial department of justice signed a strategic cooperation agreement with zhengzhou university to engage in collaborative training of foreign rule of law personnel. As the first country-level collaborative foundation for developing innovative rule of law skills for foreign nationals, zhengzhou university has taken the lead in publishing the first national course on foreign rule of law cases. This in-depth collaboration marks a crucial step towards the establishment of a chain of teletechnologies and a mechanism for the development of long-service foreign-level human resources。
“the rule of law work abroad is extensive and dynamic.” the secretary-general and director of the provincial justice department stated that we will seriously implement the spirit of the 11th plenary session of the provincial council, focusing on “two highs and fours”, building a “five environment” around “five strong provinces”, continuing to work on the exact interface between supply and demand, seeking breakthroughs in innovative modes of supply, building synergies in strengthening sectoral collaboration and working to make henan a new high ground for foreign-related legal services in the real central region。
The policy-led top-level design, demand-driven platforms, hard-core manpower support, and the upgrading of henan's foreign-related legal services not only provide solid support for home-grown businesses to sail out of the sea, but also provide inland provinces with the soft power of the rule of law to leverage innovative exploration for high-level open and high-quality development. There's a long way to go and more to explore。
