LCQ15: Promoting development of maritime legal services in Hong Kong
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Question:
The National 15th Five-Year Plan and the First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026-2030) both support Hong Kong in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international maritime centre, as well as deepening its status as an international legal and dispute resolution services centre; the 2026 Policy Address has also proposed building an ecosystem under which Hong Kong-invested enterprises adopt Hong Kong law, take out Hong Kong insurance and choose for arbitration to be seated in Hong Kong, with the aim of developing Hong Kong into a global maritime capital. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of maritime arbitration and maritime mediation cases handled in Hong Kong in the past three years (i.e. 2023 to 2025);
(2) regarding the amendment of the Arbitration Ordinance, which the Government plans to complete by 2027, of the support measures specifically targeting maritime arbitration therein;
(3) in the face of the situation where the standard contract templates published by the Baltic and International Maritime Council and other international maritime organisations mostly apply English law and arbitration in London, of the specific strategies and timetable of the Department of Justice and the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Development Board for promoting the adoption of Hong Kong law as the applicable law for standard maritime contracts, as well as the measures for designating Hong Kong as the agreed seat of arbitration;
(4) in the course of implementing the dual registration arrangement, how the authorities assess and handle conflicts of legal jurisdiction arising from the splitting of the management rights and ownership of ships between two flag states, and which flag state will bear regulatory responsibilities (e.g. blurred boundaries of powers and responsibilities); and
(5) of the current preparatory timetable, operational framework and resource allocation of the maritime academy; how the maritime academy will collaborate with the Hong Kong International Legal Talents Training Academy to nurture more legal talent in foreign-related maritime affairs in the future?
Reply:
President,
The National 15th Five-Year Plan Outline indicates clear support to Hong Kong in consolidating and enhancing its status as an international maritime centre (IMC). In the opening year of the National 15th Five-Year Plan, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government for the first time has formulated the Hong Kong Five-Year Plan to proactively align with the national development strategy. This includes developing the ecosystem of high value-added maritime services and, with quality enhancement as the core guidance, driving the comprehensive upgrading and development of high value-added maritime services cluster comprising maritime legal and arbitration sectors, thereby consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's status as an IMC.
In response to the Member's questions, having consulted the Department of Justice (DoJ), our reply is as follows:
(1) According to the information provided by the Hong Kong Maritime Arbitration Group (HKMAG) and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), the number of maritime arbitration cases handled by them in the past three years (2023 to 2025) are tabulated below:
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| HKMAG | 107 | 146 | 144 |
| HKIAC | 45 | 43 | 77 |
As for maritime mediation, the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed), headquartered in Hong Kong, was officially inaugurated in October 2025. In May 2026, IOMed successfully accepted and mediated an international maritime dispute involving parties from Chinese Mainland and Singapore, facilitating the reaching of a settlement agreement between the two sides. To date, IOMed has handled multiple cases.
(2) The DoJ has established the Working Group on Arbitration Law Reform (Working Group) in 2025 to comprehensively review amendments required to be made to the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609), so as to ensure that Hong Kong's arbitration regime remains at the forefront of international development. Although the 25 issues for reform previously reviewed by the Working Group did not include support measures specifically for maritime arbitration, the overall optimisation of the regime will benefit maritime arbitration. The proposed legislative amendments are guided by the core principles of enhancing speed, convenience and finality, strengthening the protection of confidentiality, making arbitration more readily available to resolve various types of disputes, ensuring fairness and justice, and respecting party autonomy. These proposed legislative amendments cater for the demands of maritime and shipping disputes for highly efficient resolution. An overall upgrading of the system can effectively bolster Hong Kong's competitiveness as a leading international arbitration centre.
(3) Hong Kong is one of the four designated arbitration venues under the Baltic and International Maritime Council standard contracts. To further promote the development of high value-added maritime services in Hong Kong, we introduced the Inland Revenue (Amendment) (Tax Concessions for Shipping-related Activities and Physical Commodity Trading) Bill 2026 (the Bill) to the Legislative Council (LegCo) in June 2026, introducing a half-rate tax concession regime for physical commodity trading in order to attract more commodity traders to set up their businesses in Hong Kong, thereby driving demand for Hong Kong's maritime services, of which maritime legal and arbitration services are one. The Bill proposes that, for a qualifying commodity trader to be eligible for tax concession, the expenses incurred for its relevant maritime services must meet the minimum proportion requirement for the use of specified maritime services provided by Hong Kong services providers; services relating to maritime legal and arbitration are among the specified maritime services, and the relevant arbitration agreement must specify Hong Kong as the place of arbitration. This supports the development of our maritime arbitration services.
Since the announcement in the 2025-26 Budget and the 2025 Policy Address that the Government would introduce a half-rate tax concession regime for physical commodity trading, the Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB), together with the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Development Board (HKMPDB), has been promoting the new regime to the industry through various channels, including paying visits to Geneva, Switzerland, in April 2026 and to Beijing and Shanghai in September 2026 to promote the new tax concession and Hong Kong's high value-added maritime services such as maritime legal and arbitration to commodity traders there. The TLB will continue to work closely with the HKMPDB, Invest Hong Kong and the Marine Department to step up promotion of the tax concession and Hong Kong's high value-added maritime services, including maritime legal and arbitration, to both Chinese Mainland and overseas enterprises.
Moreover, the DoJ has been committed to promoting Hong Kong's maritime legal and arbitration services through organising, co-organising and supporting various activities, such as mock arbitrations on maritime disputes, maritime arbitration summit and seminars organised during the Hong Kong Legal Week, being DoJ's annual flagship event. The DoJ will continue to organise, co-organise and support relevant activities, so as to encourage more maritime enterprises to choose Hong Kong law as the governing law of their maritime contracts and designate Hong Kong as the agreed seat of arbitration.
(4) To strengthen Hong Kong's high value-added maritime services ecosystem, the Government will introduce an amendment bill to the LegCo within this year to revamp Hong Kong's ship registration system, including the introduction of a dual registration arrangement (i.e. the arrangement for undertaking a demise charter registration at another ship registry when the registration of the original owner is suspended). According to the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a vessel shall only fly one flag during a voyage. The vessel is subject to the jurisdiction of the place of registration of the ship flying the flag at the time. The vessel concerned also operates and fulfils its contracts in accordance with the laws of the relevant jurisdiction. We will include new provisions in the amendment bill to clearly stipulate the flag suspension mechanism - the effect of the primary flag (i.e. the owner registration) is suspended before the secondary flag (i.e. the demise charter registration) can take effect, so as to ensure clear boundaries of rights and responsibilities and no situation where two legal jurisdictions exist for the same vessel.
(5) The TLB will promote the establishment of a Maritime Academy through a new "institution-enterprise collaboration" model for talent cultivation. Under the existing framework and available resources, we will co-ordinate with partners including renowned maritime institutions locally and overseas and leading international shipping enterprises to jointly organise maritime-related courses for maritime industry practitioners. The maritime industry covers a wide spectrum, encompassing high value-added fields such as maritime legal, marine insurance and maritime arbitration. To support and strengthen the nurturing of high value-added maritime talent, the TLB has been continuously enhancing the Maritime and Aviation Training Fund and launched the Maritime Services Traineeship Scheme - Legal in September 2023, encouraging law firms or barristers engaged in maritime business to provide traineeships for those aspiring to a career in maritime law, thereby nurturing more home-grown maritime lawyers for Hong Kong's maritime industry. Since the Scheme was launched in 2023, 11 trainees have been subsidised, of whom eight have completed their traineeships.
The Hong Kong International Legal Talents Training Academy looks forward to exploring opportunities for collaboration with the Maritime Academy in the future, combining the professional strengths and resources of both sides to further leverage synergies, and to organise diversified training programmes and professional exchange activities for the industry, with a view to enhancing participants' practical legal skills and international perspectives, and cultivating more talents in foreign-related maritime law.
Ends/Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Issued at HKT 12:00
Issued at HKT 12:00
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