Int’l legal services help enterprises go global

HEFEI: At a foreign legal service center, Wang Min, an executive director of a law firm, is engaged in a video conference with her peers in Tanzania.
“A local tea beverage company is mulling over whether they want to extend their business overseas, so we are authorized to consult on certain legal issues about investing in African countries,” Wang said.
On the other side of the video conference, Tanzanian lawyer Godfrey Joseph Chitawala answered Wang’s questions one by one, ranging from foreign company registration to trademark protection requirements in Tanzania and other African countries.
The legal service center, located in the city of Bengbu in east China’s Anhui Province, was set up by the city’s bureau of justice in March of this year. It integrates different types of public legal service resources, including lawyer consultation, foreign notarization, international arbitration, foreign judicial appraisal and foreign financial mediation, to help enterprises with their international business. “We have connected with many law firms with global resources, and quickly respond to the foreign legal consultation and service needs of enterprises,” said Jiang Shaoguang, head of the public legal services department of the bureau, adding that, via the center, local enterprises can get in touch with lawyers from the countries where their business is located, taking as little as one hour. –Agencies