On Sunday, October 20, 2024, a high-level economic and legal delegation from Hong Kong visited the headquarters of the General Administration of Arbitration and International Disputes at the Egyptian Ministry of Justice in the Administrative Capital, headed by His Excellency Counselor Mustafa Al-Bahbiti, Assistant Minister of Justice for Arbitration and International Disputes, and his assistant team.
The delegation was headed by Mr. Nick Chan, Hong Kong Deputy to the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, and Director of AALCO Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Centre, and Mr. Herman Tse, Deputy Head of the Delegation, Head of Commercial and Professional Services at InvestHK, the Hong Kong Government’s investment agency. The delegation included representatives from several governmental, economic and legal institutions in Hong Kong.
The visit aimed to discuss ways of cooperation in the judicial, legal and arbitration fields and the settlement of international disputes. The meeting was held in the presence of the assistant team of the Arbitration and International Disputes Department at the Ministry of Justice and the Technical Secretariat of the Ministerial Committee for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.
The members of the delegation expressed their happiness to discuss many opportunities for cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Justice, especially in the fields of conciliation, mediation and arbitration, as amicable ways and means to settle international commercial and investment disputes, especially in maritime transport disputes, as Hong Kong is one of the leading shipping centers in the world. The delegation also stressed their desire to cooperate in legal affairs related to the LawTech, mediation, arbitration and maritime field.
During the meeting, the teams stressed the need to strengthen their relations with the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO), an intergovernmental organization founded in 1956 by Egypt and Syria, before nearly 46 countries joined it, bringing its total membership to 48 African and Asian countries.
The Egyptian team also congratulated the delegation on the opening of the Hong Kong Regional Arbitration Center (AALCO-HKRAC), which is the sixth and newest arbitration center established under the auspices of AALCO and was officially opened in May 2022. Among the six centers is the Cairo Center for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), in addition to 4 other arbitration centers in: Kenya, Nigeria, Iran, and Malaysia.
