March 25, 2008, Mr. Yu Jianlong, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of CIETAC received the visit by Prof. Toshio UEHARA, Prof. Koichi Miki and other Japanese legal experts organized by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) China Office.
JICA is an organization affiliated to the Japanese Government. It has 56 offices around the world. In October 2007, JICA established a cooperation project on legislation with the Commission of Legislation Affairs of the Standing Committee of the China National People's Congress.
The Japanese experts were interested in the proposed amendment to the Chinese Arbitration Law and therefore requested to visit CIETAC to get insiders' view in that regard.
During the meeting, the Japanese experts raised questions focusing on the position of Chinese arbitration institutions on the amendment to the Chinese Arbitration Law, the comparison between international and domestic arbitration cases in China, and the relevant statistics by CIETAC concerning its caseload.
In answering the guests'questions, Mr. Yu Jianlong pointed out that CIETAC made great contributions to the legislation of Chinese Arbitration Law, which was to a large extent drafted on the basis of CIETAC Arbitration Rules and practice. Situations change with the development of international trade and investment between China and foreign countries. International Arbitration is progressing toward new directions. Therefore, it is necessary to amend the Chinese Arbitration Law made over a decade ago to keep Chinese arbitration system abreast with the international practice. Mr. Yu predicted that the amendment to the Chinese Arbitration law would continue to observe principles embodied in the UNCITRAL Model Law to allow parties' more freedom and make the best of arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism.
The discussion between Japanese legal experts and CIETAC were interesting and effective. The Japanese guests said the meeting helped them understand the Chinese arbitration system better, which would in turn facilitate their performance of the legislation cooperation with China.
