Recently, the Dentons 2024 Engineering and Infrastructure Forum, hosted by the Dentons Engineering and Infrastructure Industry Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "Industry Committee") and organized by Dentons Hangzhou Office, was held in Hangzhou. With the theme of "Industry Changes, Opportunities of the Times, Helping Enterprises Break Through and Relieve Difficulties", the forum focused on how to help construction enterprises successfully break through and further develop under the current economic cycle and industry dynamics, and discussed issues such as solving corporate accounts receivable and the important impact of government debt resolution policies on the engineering and infrastructure field. More than 200 corporate executives and legal professionals from the construction and real estate sectors attended the forum on-site, and over 6.3 million people watched the live broadcast online.

Xu Wanjun, Director of Dentons Hangzhou Office and Senior Partner of Dentons, Zhang Wentao, Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Committee for the Protection of Enterprise and Entrepreneur Legitimate Rights and Interests of the China Enterprise Confederation, and Yang Guanshan, Leader of the Industry Committee, Senior Partner of Dentons Beijing Head Office, and Legal Counsel of the Ministry of Natural Resources, attended the forum and delivered speeches. Gu Yannong, Secretary-General of the Industry Committee and Senior Partner of Dentons Shijiazhuang Office, presided over the morning forum activities.

At the forum, Jia Kang, Founding President of the China New Supply-side Economics Research Institute, gave a keynote sharing on "Interpretation of Macroeconomic Policies - Challenges and Opportunities of the Current Construction Industry". He pointed out that China's economic outlook for 2025 is full of challenges and opportunities. Although the economy faces challenges such as slowing growth, the fundamental trend of long-term improvement remains unchanged. After regulation, the real estate industry has seen major changes in market supply and demand, and policy optimization and adjustment have stabilized the market. Although the construction industry faces challenges such as slowing growth, new urbanization and the trends of intelligentization and greening bring development opportunities.

Wu Yaping, Researcher at the Investment Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, delivered a keynote speech on "Adhering to the 'Five-Sphere Integrated Plan' to Solve Local Investment and Financing Difficulties", analyzing high-quality investment under Chinese-style modernization, proposing six major strategies including new industrialization, innovation-driven development strategy, and green development strategy, and emphasizing that project investment and financing is a systematic project that requires comprehensive coordination from project planning, selection of investment and financing entities, to financial instruments and products.

Dr. Luo Guilian, Member of the Expert Cooperation Committee and Director of the Investment and Financing Research Center of China Railway Urban Development Research Institute, delivered a keynote speech on "Key Areas and Model Innovation of Urbanization Investment and Financing under the Concept of 'People-Industry-City' Integration", analyzing the innovation of urbanization investment and financing models under the concept of "People-Industry-City" integration, emphasizing that high-quality urbanization development needs to be people-centered, achieving urban-rural integration and industry-city integration, and proposing to promote urbanization development through means such as intelligent upgrading of urban and rural services, precise big data services, industrial clustering, and investment promotion fundization.

Xu Yongqian, Deputy Director of the Enterprise Compliance Working Committee of the China Enterprise Confederation and Senior Partner of Dentons Beijing Head Office, gave a keynote sharing on "Successful Practice and Global Market Outlook of Data Assetization in Construction and Municipal Infrastructure", proposing a process framework of "data resourceization - data productization - data assetization", providing a clear path and method for the digital transformation of the construction industry. Through multi-dimensional support such as data governance and data quality management, enterprises can continuously and systematically manage data, form enterprise business decision-making methods centered on data elements, and improve overall enterprise efficiency.

Zhao Liang, Deputy Secretary-General of the Hangzhou Arbitration Commission, gave a keynote sharing on "Evaluating the Standardized Development of Construction Enterprises from the Perspective of Arbitration Cases", discussing the legal issues and challenges faced by construction enterprises in their development from the perspective of arbitration cases, and providing professional interpretations on hot issues in construction arbitration cases, such as third parties in arbitration, partial awards, "back-to-back" clauses, internal contracting, and treatment of invalid contracts as valid, offering valuable arbitration legal guidance for construction enterprises.

The afternoon forum activities were presided over by Sang Xiaowei, Head of the Engineering and Infrastructure Industry Group of Dentons Hangzhou Office and Senior Partner of Dentons Hangzhou Office.

Fu Shaojun, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Behavioral Law Society and former Judge of the Supreme People's Court, gave a keynote sharing on "Compliance and Risk Control Management of Payment to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the Construction Industry". Starting from judicial practice, he focused on analyzing hot legal issues such as payment problems of small and medium-sized enterprises, interpretation of back-to-back clauses, how to break through non-interest-bearing clauses that violate fairness, and the principle of no mandatory audit, providing practical guidance and valuable suggestions for the audience.

Lan Lunshan, Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Dentons Housing and Construction Dispute Research and Mediation Center and Senior Partner of Dentons Beijing Head Office, gave a keynote sharing on "How Construction Enterprises Can Effectively Exercise Creditor's Rights Against Local Governments", introducing the concept of government-related creditor's rights, the composition of local government hidden debts, and analyzing the types of government projects, especially PPP models, projects contracted by governments or government departments as construction units, projects contracted by city investment companies, and government-entrusted agent construction models, pointing out the legal risks and risk control suggestions under these models, as well as the characteristics and difficulties of enforcing government-related creditor's rights, proposing multiple solutions, and suggesting strengthening internal and external communication, finding other funding sources besides fiscal funds, and resolving disputes through negotiation.

Di Shiqing, Director of Beijing Weiheng (Hangzhou) Law Firm, delivered a keynote speech on "Thoughts and Discussion on Construction Project Arbitration Cases". He analyzed the changing trends of construction cases in recent years based on big data of cases, and shared his practical opinions and suggestions on the overview and common issues of construction arbitration case trials under the current situation of real estate and construction industry.

After the keynote speeches, the forum organized two high-level, high-quality professional roundtable discussions. The first roundtable discussion, themed "Discussion on Implementation Paths of Engineering Creditor's Rights Collection", was moderated by Chen Jie, Senior Partner of Dentons Jinan. Six guests, including Zhou Bifeng, Member of the Dispute Mediation Committee of Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Cost Industry, Sun Ying, Senior Partner of Dentons Shanghai, Zhong Hongju, Senior Partner of Dentons Zhuhai, Zhao Jing, Senior Partner of Dentons Zhengzhou, Luo Jing, Senior Partner of Dentons Haikou, and Tan Jingquan, Secretary-General of the Construction Engineering Professional Committee of Hangzhou Lawyers Association and Director of the Construction Engineering Department of Beijing Jingshi (Hangzhou) Law Firm, discussed the difficulties encountered in engineering payment collection practices in recent years and shared experience summaries and operational points of collection paths.

The second roundtable discussion, themed "Risk and Compliance Management of Construction Unit Account Transfers", was moderated by Zheng Ke, Senior Partner of Dentons Ningbo. Six guests, including Fang Xing, Senior Consultant of Dentons Nanjing Office, Tan Xiaoshun, Senior Partner of Dentons Beijing Head Office, Zhou Chaokui, Senior Partner of Dentons Hangzhou Office, Zhao Hongjun, Partner of Dentons Ningbo Office, Ji Lichun, Senior Partner of Zhejiang Red Sun Law Firm, and Chen Ming, Director of the Construction and Real Estate Professional Committee of Taizhou Lawyers Association, shared response strategies and key points to consider in the compliance management process of construction units based on their respective practical experiences.

At the end of the event, Lawyer Yang Guanshan made a concluding speech. He said that in this era of rapid development and change, whether government, enterprises, or lawyers, all sectors are facing tremendous pressure, and in this era, the social value of lawyers can be better reflected. The theme of this conference responds to the needs of the times and reflects the social responsibility of Dentons lawyers. He hopes that friends from all sectors of society will continue to pay attention to Dentons, and also welcomes more scholars, experts, and friends to follow and participate in the Dentons Engineering and Infrastructure 2025 Annual Forum.