On August 18^th, 2023, under the theme of “Co-Constructing Platform for Shared Development”, the Central Asia Legal Services Cooperation Forum was held in Urumqi. Mr. Wang Zhenjiang, Vice Minister of Justice, PRC and Mr. Chen Mingguo, Vice Chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region attended and addressed the forum. All China Lawyers Association, the Belt and Road International Lawyers Association (BRILA) and relevant leaders of the lawyers associations of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan presented keynote speeches. The heads of BRILA's five representative offices (centers) in PRC were invited to attend the event.

Wang Zhenjiang extended congratulations on the opening of the forum on behalf of the Ministry of Justice of the People’s Republic of China. He stressed that strengthening exchanges and cooperation in the field of legal services is an important part of building a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future. China welcomes lawyers from Central Asian countries to work with their Chinese counterparts to improve capacity and quality of legal services, so as to safeguard the sustainable and long-term development of China-Central Asia relations with high-quality legal services.

Vice Minister Wang Zhenjiang addresses the forum

On behalf of the People's Government of Xinjiang autonomous region, Chen Mingguo extended welcome to both the Chinese and foreign attendees. He pointed out that as Xinjiang continues to expand its opening to the outside world with the continuously in-depth exchanges and cooperation between “the Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) countries and regions, legal services are urgently required. We hope to take this forum as an opportunity to jointly promote regional prosperity and development so as to jointly build a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.

Vice Chairman Chen Mingguo addresses the forum

Mr. Kang Yu, Secretary-General of BRILA, pointed out in his keynote speech that the establishment of BRILA has converged the common expectations of legal profession from the BRI countries and regions, and shoulders the mission and responsibility of integrating exchanges and cooperation in the field of legal services for BRI. We sincerely hope that all parties cooperating in BRI will make full use of BRILA as a platform for international legal exchange and cooperation, adhere to the principle of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefits, properly resolve disputes in accordance with the law, and create a stable, fair and transparent as well as market-oriented, legalized and international business environment, thus making contribution to the high-quality development of BRI.

Secretary-General Kang Yu delivers the keynote speech

Representatives of the legal profession from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Pakistan, representatives of the Law Society of Hong Kong, and provincial lawyers associations of China mainland, experts and scholars from universities and colleges attended the forum. Fourteen Chinese and foreign guests delivered keynote speeches on legal services in the Free Trade Zone, the international business environment, alternative dispute resolution, and FDI from BRI countries. 

During the forum, BRILA Secretariat held the Fourth Representative Office (Center) Work Meeting. The meeting was presided over by Secretary-General Kang Yu. During the meeting, heads of five representative offices (centers) presented their work reports and proposals since August 2022, after which the attendees discussed the key tasks of the third and fourth quarters of 2023. In his concluding speech, Secretary-General Kang Yu affirmed the results achieved in the operation of representative offices in pooling local resources, organizing various activities, and promoting the development of BRILA’s work. He hoped that in the next step, the secretariat and the representative offices could join hands to overcome difficulties and continue to strengthen BRILA’s role as an exchange platform, work in a diligent and responsible manner to improve daily operation under the guidance of the secretariat, and contribute to the rule of law for high-quality BRI cooperation.

Group photo of BRILA Secretary General with heads of five representative offices (centers)