Revised arbitration law ‘very good news’ for Hong Kong

Hong Kong will be able to contribute more to dispute resolution efforts as courts in the Greater Bay Area will refer cases requiring mediation to locally based organisations after a global body was set up in the city, a delegate to the nation’s top legislative body has said.

Starry Lee Wai-king, the city’s sole delegate on the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, also said on Saturday that the revised arbitration legislation allowed organisations in Hong Kong to conduct business in free trade zones in mainland China.

Lee was speaking to the media after returning to the city from Beijing, where she attended a standing committee session that ended on Friday.

“From my understanding, once the International Organisation for Mediation was established in Hong Kong, courts in the Greater Bay Area, such as the court in Qianhai, would hand cases that have a need for mediation to Hong Kong mediation organisations,” she said.

“This would allow the Hong Kong mediation sector and organisations to further contribute to the handling of disputes.”

The International Organisation for Mediation was established in May in Hong Kong to create an intergovernmental platform for resolving global disputes. It has 33 founding member countries, including Algeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Belarus, Venezuela and Cuba.