On January 10, 2010, the International Legal Affairs Committee of Experts of our Association held its first working conference in Beijing. Mr. Sun Wanzhong and Mr. Li Yuzhen, Vice Chairmen of International Legal Affairs Committee of Experts, presided over the conference. Mr. Liu Zhenhua, Chairman of International Legal Affairs Committee of Experts, delivered a splendid keynote speech. Other members of the Committee attending this conference also included Mr. Jiang Ping, Lifetime Professor of China University of Political Science and Law, Mr. Shi Taifeng, Vice Principal of Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, senior leaders from courts and procuratorates of relevant provinces, cities and autonomous regions and famous legal experts of our country. There were nearly 50 participants in total. Mr. Zhang Xiaoyu, our Executive Vice President, attended the conference as well and delivered an important speech.
The conference mainly focused on discussions over the outline of development plans and development direction for the International Legal Affairs Center. Chairman Liu Zhenhua said, “The International Legal Affairs Committee of Experts was set up to adapt to the changing situation. With global economic integration，contacts, cooperation and link among all global economies have been enhanced. Under such an international tendency, multinational corporations have already become the trend of world economic development. In the process of international economic exchanges, disputes, frictions or even conflicts unavoidably happen between different economies, multinational corporations of different nations as well as between multinational corporations and the countries where they operate, because of interferences of politics, economy, history, culture, law, values, ideology, human rights and so on. It is necessary to understand laws, regulations and legal environments of different nations in specific businesses and trades including cross-border financing, investment, company acquisition and merger and frequent trade activities. Therefore, whether a corporation fully understands, respects and effectively takes advantages of relevant international practices, local laws and regulations and rules of the game or not will not only bring direct influence on effective protection of legal rights of parties concerned, but also associate with operational performance and success or failure in business of multinational corporations locally. Meanwhile, he also said with emphasis, ‘The International Legal Affairs Committee of Experts was set up in accordance with need for the undertaking development of the party and the nation. President Hu Jintao stressed in his report at the 17th Party Congress: ‘Adhering to the basic state policy of opening up, we will better integrate our ‘bring in’ and ‘go global’ strategies, expand the areas of opening up’; ‘we will make innovations in our way of overseas investment and cooperation, support domestic enterprises in carrying out international operations of R&D, production and marketing, and accelerate the growth of Chinese multinational corporations and Chinese brand names in the world market’. The 2009 Central Economic Work Conference proposed major tasks for economic work in 2010 including ‘persisting in developing domestic and international markets simultaneously, expanding scope and depth of opening up, improving open economic system’; ‘putting great efforts on ‘go global’, expanding economic developing space; enhancing concerted efforts and complementing each other's advantages with neighboring countries, actively supporting enterprises with business conditions for overseas investment and speeding up the promotion system for oversea investment.’ Those suggestions by the central governmen are theoretical and strategic basis for the founding of our committee.”
Executive Vice President Mr. Zhang Xiaoyu made an important speech and introduced the development process and future work plan of our association. Mr. Zhang said, “International Legal Affairs Center provides services for Chinese and foreign multinational corporations in China, which is also our characteristic. We need to facilitate the healthy development of multinational corporations in China, provide large-scale Chinese corporations with assistance in solving difficulties abroad and render high-quality legal services for Chinese and foreign multinational corporations so as to better implement national development strategies of ‘bring in’ and ‘go global’.
Experts present listened to the speeches and the planning outlines of the committee of experts seriously, participated in discussions, expressed their opinions actively and put forward many valuable suggestions. This conference gained positive results. (Information resource: Media Center of China International Council for the Promotion of Multinational Corporations)