On September 12, 2023, the 11th China Arbitration Week Wuhan Special Event and "Investment and Financing Compliance Risk Prevention and Dispute Resolution" Forum (“the Forum”) was successfully held in Wuhan. The Forum was jointly organized by China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission Hubei Sub-Commission (“CIETAC Hubei Sub-Commission”), Shangfa LegalSun Think Tank (“Think Tank”), and Corporate Counsel Association of Hubei Province (“Hubei Counsel Association”). More than a hundred participants, including leaders of industry associations, heads of government departments and organizations, executives of enterprises, heads of business and legal departments of companies, and scholars, attended the Forum.

(Venue of the Forum)

Wei Ling, Head of the Think Tank and CIETAC Arbitrator , presided over the opening ceremony. Xu Zhiguo, President of Hubei Counsel Association and CIETAC Arbitrator, Hu Bangxin, Second Rank Researcher of the Policy and Regulations Department of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Hubei Provincial People’s Government, Long Jie, Director of the Legal Affairs Committee of Wuchang District People's Congress, Wang Jiaguo, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) and CIETAC Arbitrator, delivered the speeches. It is expected that through the Forum, focusing on the cutting-edge topics in the industry, exchanging ideas and gathering wisdom to enhance enterprises' awareness of compliance management, provide more compliance risk prevention measures, and help enterprises better utilize arbitration and other multiple dispute resolution mechanisms to prevent and resolve risks, which will facilitate the high-quality economic development.

(Opening remarks, by President Xu Zhiguo at the top left, Second Grade Researcher Hu Bangxin at the top right, Director Long Jie at the bottom left, and General Counsel Wang Jiaguo the bottom right)

(Yang Fan, Secretary General of CIETAC Hubei Sub-Commission, addressing the opening ceremony and delivering the keynote speech)

Yang Fan, Secretary General of CIETAC Hubei Sub-Commission, addressed the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. She introduced the basic situation of investment and financing arbitration cases in China in recent years and the relevant statistics and characteristics of investment and financing cases of CIETAC. She said that with the changes of financial environment, regulatory policies and judicial opinions, investment and financing disputes have shown a new trend of bigger caseload, growing complexity and larger disputed amount, which put forward higher requirements of compliance and risk prevention for all parties involved in investment and financing transactions. Arbitration has the advantages of party autonomy, flexibility and efficient procedures, expert adjudication and confidentiality, which can effectively meet the needs of investment and financing dispute resolution. As one of the top five most popular international arbitration institutions in the world, CIETAC has rich experience in investment and financing dispute resolution, first-class domestic and international experts, and has also specially issued the Financial Disputes Arbitration Rules. The "Expedited Arbitration Cloud Platform" of CIETAC Hubei Sub-Commission can provide whole process online dispute resolution services for domestic parties, and can be applied to the efficient hearing of batch microfinance cases. It is expected that professional, efficient and diversified dispute resolution services will create a good market-oriented and rule-of-law business environment for investment and financing entities, and jointly achieve the goal of high-quality and sustainable development.

(Keynote speech session, with Minister Yang Hongbing as the moderator on the top left, Prof. Liu Dahong on the top right, Prof. Liu Qiongzhi in the middle left, Director Guan Bin in the middle right, General Counsel Hua Wenbin at the bottom left, and Deputy General Manager Wang Jinli at the bottom right)

The keynote speech session was moderated by Yang Hongbing, Director of the Legal Affairs and Audit Department of Hubei Railway Group Co., Ltd. and CIETAC Arbitrator. Liu Dahong, Special Allowance Expert of the State Council, Chief Legal Consulting Expert of Hubei Province, Head of Doctoral Supervisory Group of Economic Law of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and Second Grade Professor, explained the new trend of current financial compliance regulation; Liu Qiongzhi, Second Grade Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of School of Economics and Management of Wuhan University, introduced the hot and difficult issues and prospects of the infrastructure investment and financing at the present; Guan Bin, Executive Director of the Financial Law Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Head of the Supervisory Group of Master's Degree in Economic Law, analyzed the problem of hidden debt governance of local governments; Hua Wenbin, General Counsel of the Yangtze River Industrial Investment Group Co., Ltd., shared his observations and thoughts on the prevention of the compliance risks of state-owned private equity funds in investment and financing in combination with his experience in enterprise management,; and Wang Jinli, Deputy General Manager of the Hubei State-controlled Supply Chain Group Company, put forward his analysis and suggestions on how to achieve the compliance of the financial leasing project.

(Closing summary by Arbitrator Wei Ling)

At last, Wei Ling, Head of the Think Tank and CIETAC arbitrator, gave her remark at the closing ceremony. She noted that the speeches of the guests were enthusiastic, profound and inspiring. The content were accurate, practical and brilliant. The Forum was a high-level, extensive, profound and advancing event.

Through the communication, the Forum successfully connected arbitration community, academia and practice community, explored the new way of enterprise rule of law construction and compliance management, introduced a new understanding of compliance risk prevention in investment and financing. It concluded the new ideas for the prevention and resolution of related disputes in the future, and provided a good guideline for the prevention of compliance risk and dispute resolution in enterprise investment and financing. The Forum achieved remarkable success.