Liu Minxia

THE Shenzhen branch of China’s International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has established a legal aid panel, consisting of 17 prominent city lawyers, to provide aid and advice to member companies.

The Shenzhen branch of the ICC, which was started May 31, 2006, now has more than 600 members, including all the large Shenzhen-based companies and industry associations, Wang Yusheng, vice president of the branch, said at a ceremony Thursday. With Shenzhen companies expanding to the overseas market at a faster pace, the number of lawsuits involving such companies had been on the rise, he said. According to statistics from the Shenzhen branch of the ICC, a total of 177 member companies asked the branch to provide legal services or advice last year.

“To meet the demand of member companies, we set up such a non-profitable legal panel to provide legal aid and advice,” said He Xuewen, president of the branch. The branch said the legal aid panel would also provide services to non-member companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, a move widely welcomed.

“It’s inevitable to be involved in lawsuits as long as you do businesses,” said Liang Riguang, chairman of Shenzhen Bao’an Yinjin Co. Ltd., a member company which oversees dozens of small firms invested in by businessmen from both inland regions and overseas countries. “To small companies like us, it would be a huge help.”

The Shenzhen branch of the ICC, under the Shenzhen Sub-branch of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, also has international chambers of commerce as its members, such as the South Korean Chamber of Commerce in Shenzhen. Over the past two years, the branch has organized hundreds of trips to promote trade by leading Shenzhen and overseas businessmen to inland regions, and organizing visits by officials from inland cities to overseas countries.