International Organization for Mediation Established in Hong Kong to Promote Peaceful Dispute Resolution

2025-05-30 23:19 Last Updated At：23:48

Signing Ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation and Global Forum on International Mediation successfully conclude today

The Signing Ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMed) and the Global Forum on International Mediation successfully concluded today (May 30).

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Signing Ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation and Global Forum on International Mediation successfully conclude today Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

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Signing Ceremony of the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation and Global Forum on International Mediation successfully conclude today Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Wang Yi, attended the Signing Ceremony of the Convention in Hong Kong. Mr Wang was the first to sign the Convention on behalf of China. Thirty-three countries, including China and countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, jointly signed the Convention. In addition, more than 50 countries and nearly 20 international organisations, including the United Nations (UN), also sent senior representatives to witness the Signing Ceremony. The Chief Executive, Mr John Lee; the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki; the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan; and the Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC, were also present.

Addressing the ceremony, Mr Wang said that as an innovative step in international rule of law, the IOMed has great significance in the history of international relations. The establishment of the IOMed is an actualisation of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; it is also an example of a civilisational belief in harmony and an epitome of inclusiveness in the culture of the rule of law. The IOMed will be headquartered in Hong Kong, whose handover is itself a success story of peaceful settlement of international disputes. The success of the "one country, two systems" principle has created brighter prospects for prosperity and stability in Hong Kong. Mr Wang said that he looks forward to all parties working together to let the IOMed play a positive role in peacefully resolving international disputes for a brighter future for humanity.

Addressing the ceremony, Mr Lee expressed his sincere gratitude to the Central Government for its staunch support of Hong Kong, allowing Hong Kong the honour of housing the IOMed headquarters. He also thanked the international community for placing their trust and confidence in the city. He said that Hong Kong is the only common law jurisdiction in China. With a robust, efficient and well-respected legal system, as well as world-class legal and dispute resolution services professionals, Hong Kong is also the most preferred seat of arbitration in the Asia-Pacific region. Hong Kong goes all out to build bridges with the world and will actively support and facilitate the IOMed's valuable work in settling international disputes through mediation, thereby providing a pathway for countries to resolve international disputes based on mutual respect and understanding.

The Global Forum on International Mediation in the afternoon discussed topics such as mediation of disputes among countries and mediation of international investment and commercial disputes. Twenty-three leaders from different countries and international organisations shared their experiences on how a neutral third party can effectively assist in the mediation of disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, highlighting the importance of mediation to the peaceful development of the world and the practice of justice. The speakers also discussed new developments in international investment and commercial dispute mediation and the contributions that the IOMed can make.

Witnessed by forum guests, Mr Lam signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Minister of Commerce of Cambodia, Mrs Cham Nimul, to strengthen co-operation between the two places on issues relating to dispute avoidance and resolution.

The objective and goal of the IOMed is to promote and facilitate the peaceful settlement of international disputes and to develop friendly relations and co-operation between countries through mediation. It is an important mechanism for implementing Article 33 of the UN Charter to peacefully settle international disputes through mediation and other means. It is of great significance to achieving win-win co-operation among all parties to the dispute, improving global governance, and promoting world peace and stability in the international order. The IOMed will be the first international intergovernmental legal organisation devoted to the use of mediation in resolving international disputes. It will be a beneficial supplement to the current international dispute settlement mechanism and will provide a new legal public good in international rule of law, marking a milestone in promoting the settlement of international disputes through mediation.

The Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation is the legal basis for the establishment of the IOMed, which covers important provisions such as the functions, governance structure, operation, scope of cases accepted, privileges and immunities of the IOMed. With the signing of the Convention, the IOMed will be formally established after signatories' ratification of the Convention and be headquartered in Hong Kong. The IOMed headquarters is expected to be operational by the end of this year or early next year at the earliest, providing friendly, flexible, economical and efficient mediation services to all parties, thereby strengthening Hong Kong's role as an international dispute resolution services centre and a capital for international mediation. Fully harnessing the institutional strengths under the "one country, two systems" principle and integrating into the national development strategy, Hong Kong will contribute to building a world of peace and justice.

The text of the Convention is available on the IOMed's website.

Financial Secretary Emphasizes Innovation, Inclusivity, and AI in CUHK EMBA Conference Speech

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference

Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the CUHK EMBA Annual Conference today (May 9):

Professor Dennis Lo (Vice-Chancellor and President, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)), Professor Lin Zhou (Dean, CUHK Business School), Macy (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Ms Macy Chan), Michael (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Mr Michael Chan), CUHK EMBA alumni and students, business leaders, distinguished guests and friends,

Good evening.

Addressing a room full of Executive MBA students and graduates is both an honour and a privilege. There is a particular kind of ambition in this room — one that is not content with success alone, but driven to understand it more deeply, in the belief that better ideas lead to greater impact.

That kind of commitment — to learning, to growth, to asking harder questions — is precisely what today's conversation is about.

The theme of this conference, which focuses on innovation and agile leadership, could not be more timely. Most of us here have lived through the Internet age and the smartphone revolution, which made communication faster and more seamless than anyone had imagined.

Today, the rise of AI places us at a more fundamental tipping point. Technology is not merely changing the answers — it is redefining the questions themselves.

Consider what is already within reach. An AI assistant can learn your preferences, curate a personalised shortlist, and simply ask for your confirmation. We should even ask whether the smartphone and the search engine will remain our primary gateways to the digital world, or whether something altogether new is already taking shape.

To draw an analogy, the power of technology does not lie in drawing the old map with greater precision. It lies in revealing how much of that map remains uncharted — and in showing us that entirely new maps, with new co-ordinates, are being drawn.

This redefinition is unfolding across three dimensions simultaneously.

First, the redefinition of products. Products are no longer discrete, standalone objects. A smart car is a vehicle, but also a mobile platform for data. An insurance policy can be a contract, but equally a dynamic reflection of health data. Innovation today is born from cross-sector convergence and continuous evolution.

Second, the redefinition of services. Services are no longer delivered solely by enterprises. They emerge from collaborative networks of people and AI. But the more profound shift is in what customers now expect. In the past, good service meant reaching the right person quickly. Today, customers expect a solution that anticipates their needs before articulating them. This requires a new architecture of service delivery: human and machine, with AI handling the scale, the speed, and the personalisation that no human team alone could sustain.

Third, and most importantly, the redefinition of business models. In the past, we sought optimal solutions within established frameworks — when demand rose, we expanded capacity; when service needs grew, we opened more branches. Technology invites us to break out of those frameworks entirely. Intelligent manufacturing means that "economies of scale" is no longer the only answer; flexible supply chains have made customised, on-demand production the new normal.

These three redefinitions are opening a commercial frontier unlike anything we have seen before. But if the benefits of technology accrue only to a small circle, its power remains fundamentally constrained. This brings me to the second message I want to leave with you today: inclusivity.

Inclusivity is not charity. Yet it is the smartest business strategy available. The unmet needs of the broader public represent the largest and most underserved market opportunity in existence. When you make quality healthcare, education and financial services accessible and affordable to ordinary residents, you are not serving a group in need of handouts — you are unlocking a vast market that traditional business models have consistently overlooked.

Hong Kong has a distinctive role to play here. We can be a co-architect of standards, a hub for capital, and a bridge between innovation and real-world deployment — from clinical validation of smart healthcare, to green technology financing, to regulatory sandboxes for fintech. Our contribution draws not only on institutional strengths and international networks, but on our genuine commitment to broad-based participation.

Yet inclusive products and services are only the first step. The deeper dimension is empowerment.

History reminds us that the dividends of technological revolution need to be actively guided to reach the many. In the age of steam, and again in the Internet era, early gains concentrated among capital owners and top-tier talent. But today we have the opportunity to write a different story. AI, as an amplifier of human capability, is already enabling what was previously unimaginable: a solo entrepreneur, with the right tools and the right vision, can build a unicorn.

In other words, the unit of competitive advantage is shifting — from the size of your team to the skill with which you orchestrate your tools.

Our mission should be to make that shift available to everyone. To turn individual readiness into collective prosperity, and to ensure that the productivity gains of AI flow broadly across the society.

This is precisely why, in this year's Budget, I placed such emphasis on the "AI Training for All" initiative.

We are not trying to turn everyone into an engineer. We are ensuring that workers, managers, SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) owners, and ordinary residents become capable collaborators with AI: people who can access it, use it effectively, and put it to work as their assistant.

That may sound ambitious, but consider this: if AI can one day be as intuitive as the smartphone, then mass adoption is not difficult to imagine at all. Just as computers once migrated from specialist facilities into offices and homes, AI will find its way into everyone's daily work and life.

For business leaders, it may be tempting to think of AI as "digital employee" that can replace existing workers. But think of a different framing: equipping your workforce with powerful digital assistants can achieve productivity gains, while also freeing your people to do what humans do best — create, imagine and innovate.

Companies that take those extra steps, and think those extra moves ahead, will find that an empowered workforce is also a more innovative one.

All in all, the power of technology must ultimately be measured by its contribution to inclusive growth. And inclusive growth, in the end, depends on, yes, commercial acumen — but also empathy, compassion, and the conviction that a rising tide should lift all boats. I can see that those qualities live in this room.

I will close with this thought. Someone once joked that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. With AI, let us never fall into the same trap — in our race to price every efficiency gain, let us not lose sight of the deeper value we are trying to create: a society where the fruits of innovation are broadly shared, and where technology lifts not just the fortunate few, but everyone willing to reach for it.

So here is my ask: let us grow the pie together. And make sure we cut it well.

Thank you very much.

International Organization for Mediation Established in Hong Kong to Promote Peaceful Dispute Resolution

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