The 2016 UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) Emergence Conference on ‘Regional Perspectives on Contemporary and Future Harmonization Agenda in International Trade Law’, co-organised by the University of Macau (UM) and the UNCITRAL Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific, was held today (13 December) at the World Trade Center Macau. During the conference, experts and scholars from Australia, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, the United States, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao discussed contemporary international legal issues arising out of various UNCITRAL texts and related harmonisation of law.

During the conference, UM Rector Wei Zhao stressed the importance of the conference in fostering the role of teaching and research in the promotion of international trade law in the region, as well as the importance of cooperation between UM and international organisations like UNCITRAL in the creation and inculcation of knowledge. He also discussed the important role UM’s Faculty of Law plays in fostering teaching and research in pertinent areas of international trade and commercial law. Joao Ribeiro, head of the UNCITRAL Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific, delivered a keynote speech titled ‘Modernizing International Trade Law to Support Innovation and Sustainable Development’. Ribeiro highlighted the strategic opportunity to Macao to establish itself as a hub of legal services and knowledge sharing in the field of intellectual trade law, especially in the context of the Portuguese speaking jurisdictions.

The two-day conference will cover many topics, including ‘Development of the Digital Economy: New Ways of Doing Business Domestically and Cross-Border’, ‘Enhancing Global Supply Chains by Reducing Legal Obstacles’, ‘Contemporary and Emerging Issues Related to Finance and Investment’, ‘Emerging Legal Issues in the Commercial Exploitation of Deep Seabed, Space and Artificial Intelligence’, and ‘Rule of Law and Access to Justice in the Context of Climate Change, Finance and Investment’.

The opening session was also attended by Chui Sai Cheong, president of the World Trade Center Macau Arbitration Center; Ung Chi Keong, head of the Department of Legal Translation, Legal Affairs Bureau of the Macau SAR Government; Jorge Neto Valente, president of the Macau Lawyers Association; and Tong Io Cheng, interim dean of the UM’s Faculty of Law.

This is the third consecutive year that UM and the UNCITRAL Regional Centre for Asia and the Pacific have co-organised the annual conference. This year’s event also receives support from the World Trade Center Macau, the International Chamber of Commerce - International Court of Arbitration Asia, and the Asian Business Law Institute. The conference is a unique event leading up to the UNCITRAL Congress on ‘Modernising International Trade Law to Support Innovation and Sustainable Development’, which will be held in Vienna in July 2017.

UM co-organises the 2016 UNCITRAL Emergence Conference on ‘Regional Perspectives on Contemporary and Future Harmonization Agenda in International Trade Law’