Inner Mongolia pilot FTZ launches 3 foreign-related legal service platforms

In response to the legal needs of the China (Inner Mongolia) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ), the Justice Department of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has guided the FTZ's three sub-zones — Hohhot, Manzhouli, and Erenhot — to formulate tailored plans for foreign-related public legal services. By integrating resources such as mediation, legal counsel, notarization, judicial appraisal, and arbitration, the autonomous region has established and put into operation three one-stop, comprehensive foreign-related legal service platforms.

Currently, the platforms in the three key sub-zones are fully operational, forming a foreign-related legal protection framework characterized by "differentiated services in each sub-zone and full coverage of the whole region," which underpins industrial development and cross-border economic and trade cooperation within the FTZ.

The Hohhot sub-zone focuses on key industries such as new energy, new materials, green computing power, and cross-border trade. By establishing dedicated foreign-related legal institutions and building university-industry collaborative training bases, the sub-zone is fostering a new pattern for cultivating versatile foreign-related legal talent.

Leveraging an integrated online-offline service model, the sub-zone has opened dedicated foreign-related service windows and upgraded the foreign-related section of its legal mini-program, offering one-stop, full-process legal services covering foreign-related notarization, cross-border legal consultation, and commercial arbitration. This precisely aligns with the legal needs for high-quality development of the free trade industries of Hohhot, the regional capital.

Building on its geographical advantage as the country's largest inland port and aligning with the northward opening-up strategy, the Manzhouli sub-zone has developed a multidimensional public legal service network to remove barriers to legal service access for port-based foreign-related businesses. It has further enhanced the provision of distinctive and specialized legal services, such as dispute resolution integrating arbitration and mediation, and compliance risk assessment for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Moreover, through a cross-border legal cooperation mechanism, the sub-zone has partnered with legal service institutions in Russia and Mongolia to build a Sino-Russian-Mongolian legal resource database and assemble bilingual professional service teams, precisely targeting legal challenges in areas such as cross-border trade and port processing.

The Erenhot sub-zone, leveraging its unique location as a gateway to Mongolia, has set up a foreign-related legal service center within its public legal service center. The center serves distinctive industries such as international trade, logistics and medical services as well as cross-border tourism.

The sub-zone has also established the Erenhot International Arbitration Court under the Hohhot Arbitration Commission, providing comprehensive and targeted port-based foreign-related public legal services and strengthening the full-chain legal protection system for cross-border industries with Mongolia.

Looking ahead, the Justice Department of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will continue to strengthen its coordinating and leading role in guiding the three sub-zones to improve platform operation mechanisms, expand legal service offerings, and refine quality supervision and assessment.

The Justice Department will optimize the business environment of the pilot FTZ with robust legal safeguards, injecting strong judicial and administrative momentum into the development of the pilot FTZ.