Belt and Road Summit: Hong Kong international mediation centre set to resolve project disputes, with preparatory work ‘to be finished in 2 years’

Sun Jin, director general at the preparatory office of the International Organisation for Mediation, on Wednesday said that his team had organised a meeting with government officials and participating countries within three months of opening the centre.

“We are confident that with the strong support and cooperation of the participating countries, the goal set out in the joint statement to complete the elaboration of the [organisation’s] convention in around two years will be successfully achieved,” Sun said during the government-organised Belt and Road Summit.

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gave the organisation its blessing during the opening of the office in February, and called it part of the mainland’s efforts to promote world peace.

Announced last November, the international body was designed to capitalise on Hong Kong’s common law heritage, as well its expertise as a dispute resolution centre, to create an intergovernmental platform for resolving international disagreements.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed in February that at least nine countries, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, Serbia, Belarus, Sudan, Algeria and Djibouti, had signed a joint statement to sign up to the mediation centre.

The Post had learned during the preparatory office’s opening in February that the body was set to be headquartered in the city.

Sun explained his organisation aimed to provide cost-effective solutions for international disputes while distinguishing itself from other cross-border bodies, which he said were more focused on arbitration or litigation.

“Currently, there is no intergovernmental body that is committed to mediation. Existing international dispute settlement organisations mainly take mediation as a supplementary measure to litigation or arbitration procedures.”

Speaking separately at the same summit, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok said Hong Kong had a unique role to play in the mainland’s Belt and Road Initiative as a “super connector” with its distinctive common law system.

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“It means that foreign parties cooperating with the mainland, or civil and commercial matters, may effectively safeguard their interests by choosing Hong Kong law to govern their legal relationships and Hong Kong as a place to resolve any disputes, be it by litigation, arbitration or mediation,” Lam said.

Under the mainland’s 14th Five Year Plan, Hong Kong is to develop as a centre for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia-Pacific region.

The city currently houses many international legal dispute resolution bodies. They include the Asian African Legal Consultative Organisation’s Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Centre, which opened last year, and the only regional office of the Hague Conference for Private International Law since 2012.

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Hong Kong also houses one of the four online dispute resolution platforms approved by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Thomas So Shiu-tsung, chairman of the e-BRAM international online dispute resolution centre, said users of his platform could apply for interim measures in mainland courts under Hong Kong arbitration procedures.

The partner at law firm Grandall Zimmern added that the digital nature of the tool would be convenient for parties in belt and road project disputes, which tended to be located in different countries.