In 2013 the government of the People’s Republic of China, together with the governments of various other Asian and European countries, launched the “Belt and Road Initiative”. The initiative is an inclusive economic growth and infrastructural initiative encompassing large parts of Asia and Europe and parts of Africa.
The success of the Belt and Road Initiative depends, in part, on competent, high quality legal services support being available for its implementation. To facilitate this, Grandall Law Firm (one of the largest law firms in China) and a small number of other founding member law firms (such as Charltons from Hong Kong) have, with the support of the relevant authorities, created a multilateral international legal services co-operation platform, or network then.
The platform is formally known as “The Belt and Road Legal Services Cooperation Platform”.
The platform was formally launched on 28 July 2017 in Chengdu, in the Sichuan Province of China.
33 premier law firms signed up to the platform’s constitution as its initial members on 28 July 2017. The law firms are mainly from Asia and Europe. However, Knowles Husain Lindsay Inc. is very honoured and excited that it was invited to, and did, sign up the platform. We are the only firm in Africa that was invited to become a member of the platform.
The platform will be much more than just the traditional law firm referral network. Quality assurance and good client care are obviously non-negotiable principles of the platform. But the platform also seeks to bring about on-going jurisdictionally relevant information exchanges, mutual professional development, new arbitration rules and forums, cultural exchanges and value-adding person-for-person professional exchanges.
KHL was represented at the launch of the platform by Francois Terblanche, the head of our corporate and commercial department, and by Kai-Lie Chen, our special consultant.
We are very excited, but also deeply honoured, to be a member of this new and dynamic platform. We look forward to playing our full part in its activities and initiatives.