The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, visited Macao today (December 5) to call on the Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), Mr Chui Sai-on, and to sign an arrangement with the Secretary for Administration and Justice of the Macao SAR, Ms Sonia Chan Hoi-fan, for mutual service of judicial documents in civil and commercial cases.
      
     During the courtesy call, Mr Cheung and Mr Chui exchanged views on the latest developments and co-operation of Hong Kong and Macao in different areas including economic and trade, cross-boundary infrastructure and youth matters. Mr Cheung said that following the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in the near future, coupled with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area development, would greatly enhance co-operation between Hong Kong and Macao and create enormous development opportunities for the two places.
      
     During his visit to Macao, Mr Cheung signed an arrangement with Ms Chan for mutual service of judicial documents in civil and commercial cases.
      
     The Arrangement for Mutual Service of Judicial Documents between the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region aims at setting up an official channel for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to make outgoing requests to the Macao SAR for service of judicial documents and enhance the existing mechanism for handling incoming requests for service of judicial documents made by the Macao SAR to the HKSAR.
      
     Under the existing legal regime, while the HKSAR can process incoming requests from the Macao SAR for service of judicial documents, there is no official channel for the HKSAR to make outgoing requests to the Macao SAR for service of judicial documents. The Arrangement will provide for an official channel to facilitate the litigants in civil and commercial cases of the two SARs to serve judicial documents, and clear procedures for service of judicial documents, such as direct transmission of requests between courts of the two SARs, specifying the types of judicial documents that can be entrusted for service, and the information and language required of requests. The Arrangement also requires that the court of the requested party shall endeavour to complete the requests for service within two months and issue certificate of service indicating whether the judicial documents have been served on the relevant parties.
      
     The Arrangement will be implemented by amending the relevant provisions of the Rules of the High Court and the Rules of the District Court. The full text of the Arrangement is now available at the Department of Justice website (www.doj.gov.hk/eng/mainland/intracountry.html).
      
     Besides, Mr Cheung also visited the Macao Young Entrepreneur Incubation Centre to learn how the Centre provided facilities and support services to assist local young people in setting up businesses.
      
     Mr Cheung returned to Hong Kong in the evening.

Ends/Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:11

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