The “2025 Greater Bay Area (GBA) Legal & Business Symposium” was held yesterday, discussing ways how to establish a channel for direct access to legal resources across Macau, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, particularly providing clear guidance on practical issues such as cross-border legal practices and intellectual property protection, offering businesses clear directions for overseas expansion.
The one-day event took place at Macau Galaxy International Convention Centre, focusing on “bridging legal and corporate needs to solve cross-border challenges,” and over 300 legal representatives, corporate leaders and young lawyers from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau attended.
Lawyer Junius Ho Kwan Yiu , a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said in his speech that as of last week about 618 Hong Kong and Macau lawyers had obtained qualifications to practise in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) through the current pilot scheme, adding that the lawyers participating in the scheme are from nine Guangdong cities, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, which expanded more opportunities for legal professionals from Hong Kong and Macau in the Greater Bay Area.
According to a statement released by the International Probono* Legal Services Association (IPLSA) yesterday, considering cross-border legal practices in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, existing barriers across market competition, taxation, policies, and professional training domains, including the lack of mutual recognition for continuing legal education credits among the three jurisdictions, it has proposed the setting-up of a “one-stop legal service hub” for the three regions, facilitating notarisation services and providing a network for three-regions lawyers.
*Pro bono is short for the Latin phrase pro bono publico, which means “for the public good”, it refers to professional services (most famously legal work, but also other fields) provided voluntarily and free of charge to clients who cannot afford to pay, or to organisations that serve the public interest. – DeepSeek
Lawyer Junius Ho Kwan Yiu (first right), who is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and others pose for a group photo during yesterday’s “2025 Greater Bay Area (GBA) Legal & Business Symposium" at Galaxy International Convention Centre in Cotai. – Photo: Maria Cheang
