On Dec. 22,2019, the 8th China Corporate Legal Affairs Conference (Central China) was successfully held in Wuhan, with the topic of “Trend of Compliance and Its Responses”. The CCLA was hosted by the Legal Daily China Institute of Corporate Legal Affairs, co-organized by CIETAC Hubei Sub-commission, Hubei Association of Corporate Counsel and Hubei Bai Si De Law Firm, and was supported by Shanghai Huiye (Wuhan) Law Firm, CCPIT (Hubei) Pilot Free Trade Zone Service Center and Wuhan Construction Industry Association.

(Conference Scene)

(Wang Chengjie, Vice President and Secretary General of CIETAC Delivered the Speech)

The first session of the Conference, i.e. remarks of the organizers, was hosted by Yao Junyi, Secretary General of CIETAC Hubei Sub-commission. Xin Hong, Secretary General of the Legal Daily China Institute of Corporate Legal Affairs and Hu Yonghua, Secretary General of the Hubei Association of Corporate Counsel delivered speeches respectively. Wang Chengjie, Vice President and Secretary General of CIETAC delivered the keynote speech.

Secretary General Wang Chengjie said in his address that compliance and legal construction are not only the requirements of the Party and our nation for enterprises, but also the necessities for enterprises to actively participate in international governance. Legal construction is a crucial means of enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises. As can be seen from the practice of CIETAC, only by establishing a all-time compliance awareness can risks be prevented.

Enterprises are the major participants of the legal construction of the “Belt and Road”. In the face of “great changes unseen in a century”, it worth pondering by those in-house lawyers how enterprises could protect their legitimate interests in the process of globalization, fight for more power of discourse, and further, to build a  reasonable, legal, and compliant business environment.

Since CIETAC was decided to be set up at the State Council Meeting in 1954, CIETAC has been taking its responsibility and mission to resolve international economic and trade disputes and push forward the process of international rules of law. Since its establishment 63 years ago, CIETAC has handled more than 40,000 cases, the arbitral awards of which have been effectively enforced worldwide. This year, the cases handled by CIETAC involved more than 70 jurisdictions, which has been a new growth compared with that of more than 60 jurisdictions last year.

In order to improve the credibility of arbitration, and maintain the advantages of arbitration rules, CIETAC strengthened its theoretical research on arbitration, with the combination of “Belt and Road” country policies, introduced practices such as consolidations of arbitrations, emergency arbitrator and joinder of additional parties. It also published investment arbitration rules, guidance on third-party funding, mediation rules and other special arbitration rules, under the premise of respecting parties’ autonomy and the discretion of the arbitral tribunal, in order to explore multiple dispute resolution mechanisms that are in line with international standards and adapts to China’s national practices. CIETAC conducted extensive international exchanges, deeply participated in international arbitration practices and promoted the construction of global economic and legal governance system.

In 2019, CIETAC hosted hundreds of events. The China Arbitration Summit and the “Belt and Road” Arbitration Institutions Roundtable Forum held in Beijing attracted widespread attention from all walks of life, where well-known domestic and international arbitration institutions also jointly announced the “Belt and Road” Arbitration Institutions Beijing Joint Declaration. As one of the major permanent commercial arbitration institutions, CIETAC has always fulfilled its mission and responsibility with action. It is hoped that through this Conference, enterprises can have a better understanding of arbitration and CIETAC. CIETAC will keep improving the quality of its arbitration service to promote the compliance of enterprises.

At the keynote session, Liu Junhai, Professor of Renmin University of China and Director of Commercial Law Institute, gave an in-depth interpretation of company law related session of Jiumin Minute (the minute of the ninth national courts meeting on commercial and civil adjudication). He mainly focused on the explanation of issues such as value adjustment mechanism, shareholder buyback and external guarantee, which triggered heated discussion.

(From left to right and up to down:Ma Jianguo, General Counsel of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., LTD., Yang Jingzhou, General Counsel of China Metallurgical Group Corporation, Guo Peijun, Deputy General Counsel of Sinopec Jianghan Oilfield, Guo Qinghong, Senior Partner of Shanghai Huiye Law Firm, Hu Xiao from Legal Department of Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Yang Hongbing, Head of Legal and Audit Department of Hubei Province Railway Construction Investment Group Co., LTD)

At the round table discussion, Ma Jianguo, General Counsel of China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., LTD., Yang Jingzhou, General Counsel of China Metallurgical Group Corporation, Guo Peijun, Deputy General Counsel of Sinopec Jianghan Oilfield, Guo Qinghong, Senior Partner of Shanghai Huiye Law Firm, Hu Xiao from Legal Department of Dongfeng Motor Corporation and Yang Hongbing, Head of Legal and Audit Department of Hubei Province Railway Construction Investment Group Co., LTD respectively discussed the compliance risks of enterprises at home and abroad and the solutions thereto by combining their own corporate compliance construction practices.

(From left to right, up to down: Wei Ling, Deputy General Counsel of China Railway 11 Bureau Group Co., LTD., He Yingwei, Chairman of Hubei Baiside Law Firm, Zheng Jun, General Manager of Contract Legal Department of China Conostruction Third Engineering Bureau Co., LTD., Ge Huangbin, Managing Partner of LVM Law Chambers, Ge Zhenye, Chairman of Shanghai Huiye (Wuhan) Law Firm and Wang Junfeng, Vice General Manager of Hubei Construction Project Fifth Construction Corporation)

At the afternoon discussion, Wei Ling, Deputy General Counsel of China Railway 11 Bureau Group Co., LTD., He Yingwei, Chairman of Hubei Baiside Law Firm, Zheng Jun, General Manager of Contract Legal Department of China Conostruction Third Engineering Bureau Co., LTD., Ge Huangbin, Managing Partner of LVM Law Chambers, Ge Zhenye, Chairman of Shanghai Huiye (Wuhan) Law Firm and Wang Junfeng, Vice General Manager of Hubei Construction Project Fifth Construction Corporation respectively discussed and shared risk hotspots in the real estate and construction industry.

During the discussion session under the theme of “Guidelines on Automobile Finance Compliance and Key Points on Risk Control of Automobile Industry”, participants discussed the topics such as automobile finance loan and automobile finance lease. The meeting issued “Guidance on Automobile Finance Compliance”.

The one-day meeting analyzed the current difficulties and hot issues in compliance management, which fit well with the economic development of Hubei as the leading construction and automobile province, bringing fruitful results and in-depth thinking for more than 350 participating in-house lawyers.