His comment comes ahead of his visit to Qatar and Kuwait on Saturday as part of a delegation led by Chief Executive John Lee.
Speaking on RTHK’s Backchat programme, Tong said the society will be signing memorandums of understanding with the Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration, the Qatar Lawyers Association and the Kuwait Bar Association.
He said Hong Kong’s role is unique in being the only city in China that has a common law system as well as being the only Chinese and English bilingual common law jurisdiction in the world.
Tong also said Hong Kong’s legal system is aligned with Qatar and Kuwait in some unique respects.
“In Qatar and Kuwait, they have a mixture of different laws,” he said.
However, “one thing is very unique: when they do international business, they adopt common law so we are speaking the same language”, he said.
“So literally, we can actually use these unique advantages to contribute back to our country when they actually do business from overseas to the mainland and also help our mainland counterparts to actually [do business overseas].”
Tong said all commercial activities are intertwined with the law and require the support of professional legal services.
“For example, if there is a company in Qatar or Kuwait that wants to do business with the mainland, they come to Hong Kong and collaborate with a Hong Kong enterprise and go into the Greater Bay Area, they literally can apply common law in their contract,” Tong said, referring to the favourable free-trade treatment the city receives under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with the mainland that can benefit Middle East firms.
“[If they are so unfortunate as to have a dispute] then they can even actually apply for Hong Kong as the seat of arbitration.”
Tong said Hong Kong has the international expertise that can cope as there are nearly 1,700 registered foreign lawyers and more than 80 registered foreign law firms in the city.
