On 7 April, a conference on foreign-related rule of law in Zhejiang Province was held in Hangzhou. Leaders from the Ministry of Justice of the Central Government, leaders from the Provincial Party Committee and provincial government, vice mayors and deputy secretaries from the provincial Department of Justice and cities in the province, vice presidents of foreign-related commercial courts and representatives of arbitrators attended the conference. As the only enterprise, Huayou was invited to participate in the conference. Fang Qixue, Vice Chairman and Senior Vice President of Huayou, participated in the conference and shared the company's legal practice and experience of "going abroad" for many years.

The meeting aimed at summarising and exchanging Zhejiang's foreign-related rule of law work, analysing the current situation and deploying key tasks for the next stage. Fang Qixue delivered a speech entitled "Rule of Law Empowering, Sailing Ahead,  Showing "Huayou's Power" for the joint construction of "the Belt and Road Initiative", which demonstrated Huayou's active exploration and practice in the field of rule of law in foreign affairs.

The rule of law is a solid guarantee for enterprises to go global and a core element of their internationalisation strategy. Since its establishment, Huayou has always adhered to the principle of "Sailing ahead, rule of law first", focused on the research of country-specific legal environment to ensure the rule of law for "going out"; promoted legal talents to go to sea, and "wherever the project goes, the legal affairs will go there"; and promote the compliance of enterprises to go abroad to ensure the compliance of enterprises' operation in the global market. At the same time, the company not only adheres to the rule of law and international development, but also actively participates in local foreign-related legal services, and shares its experience with small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of "going global" legal service groups, helping to enhance the enterprises' ability to resist overseas business risks and the overall level of foreign-related rule of law of the enterprises.

When Chinese enterprises go overseas, it is not only industrial competition, but also a competition of rules. Compliance management is a new situation for world-class enterprises to adapt to the increasingly strict market regulation in recent years. In March last year, Huayou Cobalt became the world's first new energy lithium material enterprise to pass the international certification of ISO37301 compliance management system, which also marks the company's compliance management into the international standard.

The meeting pointed out that, standing at a new historical starting point, Zhejiang should firmly grasp the responsibility and mission of safeguarding major strategies, and strive to create a first-class international business environment; firmly grasp the important task of safeguarding overseas interests, and make every effort to safeguard the enterprises and citizens "going out" and "sailing steadily"; also pay attention to cultivating talents, and endeavour to create more experiences and practices in the field of foreign-related law for reference, so that we can make more contributions to the construction of rule of law in China.

Huayou will deeply understand and implement the spirit of the meeting, continue to uphold the national sentiment of "rooted in China", give full play to its own advantages, and strive to show the good image of Chinese enterprises to the world in the process of internationalisation, and contribute more to Zhejiang as a forerunner to write a new chapter.