The Supreme People's Court (SPC) signed a pact with the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on mutual assistance in preservation measures to aid arbitration proceedings on Feb 25.

SPC vice-president He Rong and Cheong Weng Chon, secretary for administration and justice of the Macao SAR government signed the pact on behalf of each side.

As the fifth pact on judicial assistance signed between the two sides since Macao returned to the motherland in 1999, this pact is of great significance in further improving the judicial cooperation mechanism, innovating judicial assistance measures and enhancing people's well-being.

He said the signing of the pact marked further optimized, improved and more comprehensive judicial cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Macao SAR in civil and commercial areas, and will facilitate better judicial services in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin. It fully reflects the institutional advantages of the "one country, two systems" principle and propels practice and development in the judicial field under the framework of "one country, two systems". She called for further cooperation in judicial areas and more contributions to the stability and prosperity of the Chinese mainland and Macao SAR.

Cheong said the pact was a supplement to the one signed in 2007 between the two sides on mutual recognition and enforcement of arbitral decisions. It bears great significance to boosting the development of the arbitration sector in Macao, efficiently settling cross-border civil and commercial disputes, and improving the diversified dispute resolution mechanism. He pledged to strengthen regulation and mechanism alignment and improve the efficiency and level of judicial assistance, so as to provide a solid rule-of-law guarantee for the construction of the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.