Mr (Huganeswaran) Veerasagram [Senior Case Counsel, Kuala
Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration], Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Government of the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region, may I extend our warmest welcome to all
of you for joining this seminar co-organised by the Department of
Justice and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.
- Malaysia and Hong Kong have long enjoyed cordial
relations in the context of trade and beyond. With the
implementation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the
ASEAN – Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement soon to be signed, I
am very positive that the partnership and the synergy arising from
the strong nexus between us will be further strengthened.
- Riding on the momentum of the Belt and Road Initiative,
China’s investment projects in Malaysia and economic activities
between the two countries have proliferated significantly. In
November 2016, China and Malaysia signed a total of 14
Memoranda of Understanding covering areas such as agriculture,
education, finance, defence and construction. These 14 business
arrangements, the sealing of which were witnessed by the
Chinese Premier and the Malaysian Prime Minister, have an
aggregate value of about US$ 33.1 billion. In May 2017, a further
9 business agreements covering construction, agriculture, stock
exchange, infrastructure as well as port and airport cooperation
were signed between Chinese and Malaysian companies, again
witnessed by the Chinese Premier and the Malaysian Prime
Minister, with proposed investment estimated at US $7.22
billion.
- Behind all these investment projects, a variety of
professional services are required to turn vision into fruitful
results. In this regard, Hong Kong is not just the ideal bridge
between Mainland China and Malaysia, but is also well placed to
provide a wide range of professional services to facilitate
Malaysian businesses in grasping emerging opportunities as
projects contemplated under the Belt and Road Initiative unfold.
- This brings me to the theme of this session --- legal risk
management. Legal risks are inevitable in virtually all business
ventures, even if each business partner is seeking to act as
reasonable and bona fide as possible. That explains why legal
risk management is so important in modern business practice.
- Legal risk management, of course, is not confined to
dispute resolution mechanism that can be resorted to after
disputes have arisen. Instead, legal risk management becomes
relevant even before a party decides whether to engage in an
investment at a particular place, and covers each and every stage
thereafter. Put briefly, legal risk management includes: (1) legal
due diligence; (2) consideration of the appropriate mode of
contractual arrangement; (3) the proper drafting of contract; and
(4) the design of clauses or schemes relating to dispute
resolution.
- With a robust legal regime, Hong Kong is ready and able
to serve as an international and yet neutral legal risk management
and dispute resolution hub. Our speakers will share with you the
key features of Hong Kong as an international legal and dispute
resolution centre in the Asia Pacific region. Allow me just to
highlight a few of the key factors.
- First, by reason of the “one country, two systems” policy,
Hong Kong maintains the common law legal system, which is
familiar to the international business community. To our friends
in Malaysia, common law will be no stranger.
- Second, we have a robust legislative regime which
robustly enforces contractual rights and effectively resolves
disputes. Examples include our Arbitration Ordinance and our
Mediation Ordinance.
- Third, we have a top quality and truly independent
Judiciary. A unique feature of our judicial system is that we have
top judges from other common law jurisdictions including the
United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand serving as
non-permanent judge of our Court of Final Appeal.
- Fourth, for decades, the Government has been providing
unfailing support to the promotion of dispute resolution including
arbitration and mediation. Gladly, our efforts have met with
international recognition. According to the 2015 International
Arbitration Survey conducted by the Queen Mary University of
London, Hong Kong was ranked third globally as the preferred
seat of arbitration, just behind London and Paris.
- We will of course continue to upgrade our system. In this
aspect, if I may highlight two sets of legislative amendment
which were made only a few months ago. The first set of
amendments is made to both our Arbitration Ordinance and our
Mediation Ordinance, and which clarifies that third-party funding
for arbitration and mediation is not prohibited by the common
law doctrines of maintenance and champerty. The second set of
amendment, which is made to our Arbitration Ordinance, clarifies
that disputes over intellectual property (“IP”) rights can be
resolved by arbitration. As a result of this amendment, parties can
resolve efficiently in a single forum their IP rights disputes which
may occur in multiple jurisdictions without having to fight
parallel court proceedings in different jurisdictions, thereby
achieving significant saving of costs and time.
- Such concept of one-stop service is also extended to
mediation. To facilitate the use of evaluative mediation in
addition to facilitative mediation for disputes including disputes
over IP right, a dedicated committee was recently established
under our Steering Committee on Mediation to study the
provision of evaluative mediation services in Hong Kong, and to
make the necessary recommendations. I am sure you will hear
more about the protection of IP rights from experts in this area
later this afternoon.
- Ladies and gentlemen, we come here partly to introduce
to you the legal risk management services that Hong Kong can
offer. But that’s not our only aim, as we also come here to
consolidate our cooperation with Malaysia, including cooperation
in the context of international legal and dispute resolution
services. The Kuala Lumper Regional Centre for Arbitration has
been making significant progress since its establishment and its
achievements in recent years have been practically outstanding.
Hong Kong looks forward to building and maintaining closer
collaboration with our dispute resolution counterparties in
Malaysia as we believe it is in our mutual interest to do so, and
that is why we very much cherish the opportunity available today
for exchanging views and sharing experience with you.
- On this note, it remains for me to wish the Seminar every
success, and also to wish all of you an enjoyable and fruitful
afternoon.
Thank you.