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Ⅴ. Development Prospects and Strategic Analysis of Hong Kong Legal Practitioners in the GBA

reaching over 1,400 Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong by July 2023. Hong Kong continues to adopt new

measures to attract more companies to be listed in Hong Kong. The listing of Mainland companies in Hong
Kong inevitably generates complex legal issues, requiring Mainland and Hong Kong corporate lawyers and

underwriter’s lawyers to provide legal services including corporate restructuring, due diligence, formulation and
review of internal controls, issuance of Chinese legal opinions, and participation in the preparation and approval

of prospectuses.
This trend will bring new opportunities to Hong Kong legal practitioners, especially those GBA lawyers who

know both Hong Kong and Mainland laws. In this survey, 86.3% of interviewed enterprises believe that they
would prefer lawyers who hold qualifications in both Hong Kong and the GBA when dealing with foreign-related

legal matters.
In summary, the good performance of the Hong Kong financial market provides tremendous opportunities

for legal practitioners, especially those with qualifications in both Hong Kong and the GBA. With the increase of
Mainland companies listing in Hong Kong, the demand for foreign-related legal services will rise accordingly,

creating more opportunities for lawyers to expand their business and provide professional legal services.

5.1.3 Hong Kong legal practitioners have opportunities in exploring the GBA market

As mentioned earlier, Hong Kong legal practitioners are inclined to cooperate with Mainland practitioners

and broaden their presence in the GBA market. The target cities for most law firms are first-tier cities such as
Guangzhou and Shenzhen or the Qianhai and Hengqin Free Trade Zones. Hong Kong lawyers participating in

the survey recognise that, comparing with other regions in China, the GBA has advantages such as proximity to
Hong Kong and Macao, convenient transportation, more favourable policies, relatively greater market openness,

and a huge demand for legal services. Over half of the lawyers believe that their firms will send personnel to
participate in the GBA Legal Professional Examination.

On June 29, 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) and the Innovation, Technology
and Industry Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR signed the “Memorandum of Understanding

on Facilitating Cross-boundary Data Flow within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao GBA”. Previously,
the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR and the

Administrative Bureau of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone
jointly promulgated the “16 Cooperation Measures for the Development of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong

Intellectual Property and Innovation Hub”. As early as 2021, the Supreme People’s Court of the PRC and the
Department of Justice of the Hong Kong SAR signed the record of meeting concerning “Mutual Recognition of

and Assistance to Insolvency Proceedings between the Courts of the Mainland and the Hong Kong SAR”. On

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