China's arbitration agencies handle over 2.6 million cases

BEIJING - China's arbitration agencies have handled more than 2.6 million civil and commercial cases since the law on arbitration was enacted in 1994, according to a national arbitration work conference earlier this week.

These cases involved over 4 trillion yuan ($595 billion) and were related to parties from more than 70 countries and regions, according to the conference.

The country had 255 arbitration committees with more than 60,000 staff at the end of 2018. Arbitration agencies across the country dealt with more than 540,000 cases in 2018, up 127 percent from 2017, the conference said.

In recent years, over 60 percent of cases were concluded rapidly or mediated, indicating an increased quality of arbitration work, according to the conference.

"China is among a handful of countries that have the highest record of solving civil and commercial disputes through arbitration," justice minister Fu Zhenghua said at the conference.

Fu said that a multi-layer arbitration work system which is in full consideration of national conditions and in keeping with internationalization will be built by 2022.