The China Arbitration Summit 2019 was held in Beijing on Nov 6, with issues like dispute settlement along the Belt and Road, international investment disputes arbitration and creation of an arbitration-friendly environment on its agenda.

In his keynote speech to the summit, Luo Dongchuan, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), said that as an important component of the national governance system, the diversified dispute settlement mechanism would be advanced at a deeper level.

Luo said that courts must strengthen the judicial review of arbitration, increase their support for the role of arbitration in the national governance system, and strive to build an arbitration-friendly judicial supervision environment.

He revealed that the SPC will release judicial documents on providing judicial services and support for the construction of the Belt and Road and the Lin-gang Special Area, a newly added part of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, improve the diversified settlement mechanism for international commercial disputes, conduct research on the development of a cases information system for the judicial review of arbitration, and strengthen the interconnection of judicial administrative departments and arbitration institutions, among others.