From April 27 to 28, 2018, the 2018 Annual Conference of the All China Lawyers Association Construction and Real Estate Committee (the "ACLA CREC") and Seminar on Legal System of General Contracting was successfully held at the Beijing Ritan International Hotel in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The event was hosted by the ACLA CREC, and organized by Shanghai City Development Law Firm and Dentons China. A total of more than 200 people attended this event, including members of the ACLA CREC, and representatives of domestic construction companies, design agencies, consulting agencies, and law firms from across the country. Jun Wang, chair of Dentons Beijing Management Committee, participated in this event and delivered a welcome speech. Huazhi Yuan, director of Dentons Beijing Board and head of Dentons China Real Estate and Energy Committee, attended this meeting.
The one-and-a-half-day event mainly included a summary of the ACLA CREC's work in 2017, speeches of representatives from the General Contracting Contract Operation Guidelines Research Group of the ACLA CREC (the "Research Group"), and keynote speeches on the Belt and Road Initiative and general contracting. The distinguished guests present at the event included Xiutao Han, Secretary-General of the ACLA, Ming Wei, Deputy Director of the Construction Market Supervision Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Huijuan Wu, Vice President of the China Construction Industry Association and former Director of the Construction Market Supervision Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Hua Jiang, Chief of the Design Section of the Construction Market Supervision Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Chun Du, President of the Qianhai Belt and Road Legal Service Federation and former Director of the Department of Lawyers and Notary Supervision of the Ministry of Justice, Shuying Zhu, legal adviser of the Department of Construction Market Supervision of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Director of the ACLA CREC, and Head of Shanghai City Development Law Firm, Xiaobin Li and Luhai Lin, Deputy Directors of the ACLA CREC, Shuibo Zhang, CPPCC member, Dean of the International Project Management College of Tianjin University, and Professor of Tianjin University, Jide Sun, Deputy Director of the Research Institute of Project Administration and Management of Tongji University, Wei Tian, general manager of Sino Great Wall Co., Ltd., and Zheng He, partner of Deloitte China, etc.
The session on the afternoon of May 27 was presided over by Mr. Huazhi Yuan, Deputy Directors of the ACLA CREC. First, Director Shuying Zhu summarized the work of the committee in 2017. Deputy Director Xiaobin Li reported on the financial situation of the committee. Deputy Director Luhai Lin announced the awards and recognitions. Subsequently, Deputy Director Jiaxue Yang presided over the Research Group's speeches. Representatives of the group, including Yao Ma, Donglin Gu (subcontracting design team), Huiming Wang (construction subcontracting team), Lixia Zhou (procurement subcontracting team), and Shan Cao (project management team) respectively introduced the progress of the relevant research topics on the guidelines for the operation of lawyers in the general contracting business drafted by the ACLA CREC at the current stage. In the end, expert participants Junru Duan, Jie Wei, and Dageng Han shared their research results of the models and risks of general contracting, and the comparison of general contracting and traditional models, arousing enthusiastic exchange and discussion among the delegates.
The session on the morning of May 28 was chaired by Director Shuying Zhu, and Jun Wang gave a welcome speech.
During the meeting, the special guests, Secretary-General Xiutao Han and Deputy Director Ming Wei, delivered an important message. They affirmed the work of the ACLA CREC and the great significance of this conference, with domestic construction sector actively improving the project organization and implementation, and lawyers pushing forward the development of general contracting and legal services in the whole process. Deputy Director Ming Wei highlighted lawyers' active role played in drafting the management approaches for general contracting, and in drafting and revising the corresponding standard contract forms.
Ms. Huijuan Wu introduced the reasons for accelerating the adoption of general contracting, and discussed the issues and considerations in the practice, from the perspectives of general contracting model, project requirements, government regulation and guidance, recusing to avoid conflict of interests and accountability, and current corporate development issues.
Mr. Chun Du delivered a keynote speech on specific measures for establishing a sound legal system for general contracting from the perspectives of the consistency between the promotion of general contracting and the national policies, the lack of legal system for general contracting, and the protection of the legitimate rights of domestic companies going out under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Professor Shuibo Zhang, analyzed the benefits of the FIDIC contract system to domestic general contracting from the perspectives of the EPC characteristics under the FIDIC contracts, the 2017 FIDIC drafting principles, and the new FIDIC contract system. Professor Zhang also proposed operational suggestions on the core issues in the drafting of the standard contract forms, with reference to the development phase and characteristics of this sector in China.
The session on the afternoon of the 28th was moderated by Mr. Huazhi Yuan. On basis of their own practice experiences, the panelists provided valuable opinions and suggestions on the development of general contracting and the improvement of relevant laws and regulations.
Mr. Zheng He from Deloitte China explained in detail how the firm's intelligent engine was created, the engine's application in contract review, and demonstrated the research results and work interface of the artificial intelligence assisting in reviewing contracts of construction projects.
Mr. Wei Tian, GM of Sino Great Wall Co., Ltd. and professor-level senior engineer, illustrated the differences of FIDIC system and the Red, Yellow, and Silver books in the scope of application, and the differences between FIDIC and domestic standard contracts in terms of the corresponding concepts and terminologies. Mr. Tian suggested that, in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, the legal system for domestic construction projects should be mostly consistent with international practice, and emphasized the system's operability. In addition, Mr. Tian advised on issues such as general contracting mode, contractor qualification, consortium, risk allocation of contracted parties, and dispute resolution.
From the perspective of international construction projects' arbitration practice, Mr. Jingzhou Tao, Managing Partner at Dechert LLP responsible for developing the firm's Asia practice, summarized and discussed the experiences and lessons learned by Chinese companies in international construction projects. In particular, Mr. Tao mentioned an arbitration case of contract dispute over the Polish A2 motorway project that involved a Chinese company. In this case, the arbitration was conducted in a polish arbitral tribunal according to the contract, which caused significant impact on the fulfillment of the contract and the resolution of dispute. Through this example, Mr. Tao emphasized the importance of the selection of international arbitration and arbitrators, and the significance for arbitration lawyers to enhancing legal skills, and evidence preparation capabilities, etc. in international arbitrations.
Professor Jide Sun, Deputy Director of the Research Institute of Project Administration and Management of Tongji University and team leader of the key research topic of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 2017 “Policy Research for Promoting Whole-process Engineering Consulting Service System”, analyzed the relationship between the whole-process engineering consultation and the general contracting, introduced the development and connotation of the whole-process engineering consulting in China at the current stage, and the core concepts of the whole-process engineering consulting – design-oriented, targeting overall management of fragmentation, and aiming to resolve the separation of construction and operation – and put forward the all-round, multi-functional services that the whole-process engineering consultation can provide for pushing forward the development of general contracting.
Finally, Mr. Shuying Zhu summarized the conference and analyzed the defects in China’s laws and regulations with regard to general contracting in light of the lessons learned from November 24 major safety accident occurred in Fengcheng power plant in Jiangxi Province, emphasizing the importance, necessity, and urgency of establishing a system of general contracting laws and regulations.
In recent years, under the vigorous promotion of the government, the use of general contracting has been expanded from the industrial field to the fields of architecture and municipal administration. A new tide of general contracting and project management has come. As one of the earliest law firms involved in the construction engineering legal service market, Dentons has built a mature and competent engineering contracting legal service team, which has been widely recognized by domestic and foreign clients and has won recommendations of respected legal directories. It is also phased achievements Dentons gained in the development of specialized legal services. This meeting has established a platform for exchanges and cooperation among people from all walks of life in the general contracting sector, facilitating people to jointly explore relevant legal issues.