The Department of Justice (DoJ) today hosted the first Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) Lawyers Exchange Reception, bringing together more than 150 participants from the Mainland, Macau and Hong Kong legal sectors.

They included representatives from the Guangdong Lawyers Association, the lawyers associations of the nine Mainland municipalities in the GBA, the Macao Lawyers Association, Hong Kong legal professional bodies, as well as many GBA lawyers and various Legislative Council members to discuss promoting the construction of the rule of law in the GBA.

Guangdong Department of Justice Director-General Chen Xudong and Macau Legal Affairs Bureau Director Leong Weng-in also attended the event.

The DoJ consulted various stakeholders on the work of the bay area. The GBA lawyers considered it necessary to establish a platform as soon as possible to facilitate exchanges and capacity building among them to enable the industry to better participate in the GBA's development.

Deputy Secretary for Justice Cheung Kwok-kwan noted that the establishment of the platform is not only an initiative in the Policy Address, but also an important measure in the DoJ's Action Plan on the Construction of Rule of Law in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

He highlighted that the platform aims to consolidate the professional strengths of the legal services in the GBA and foster mutual capacity development by leveraging the bay area's strengths, thereby giving full play to the unique strengths of GBA lawyers and contributing to the high-quality development of the bay area.

Mr Cheung said it is an initial suggestion that the platform, with the GBA lawyers as key members, would serve three objectives - promoting training and professional exchanges among the GBA lawyers in a more systematic manner; establishing and developing the team of the GBA lawyers; and building and promoting the brand of GBA lawyers to contribute to the construction of foreign-related rule of law of the country.

He emphasised that once the details of the platform's establishment are finalised, the DoJ looks forward to implementing setting it up as early as possible in response to the industry's strong demands.

The platform organisation, together with the Hong Kong International Legal Talents Training Academy to be launched shortly, will enable Hong Kong to fully harness the institutional strengths of the “one country, two systems” framework in response to the keen demand for foreign-related legal talent in the region and beyond, and to grasp the opportunities in the GBA with a view to making greater contributions to the high-quality development of the country, Mr Cheung added.

The exchange reception is one of the events on the fourth day, themed “Joint Contribution to the Construction of Rule of Law in the GBA” under Hong Kong Legal Week 2024.