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Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to warmly welcome all of you to the Bar Council Auditorium for this morning’s Australia-Malaysia Legal Services Roundtable.  I would especially like to welcome representatives of the Law Council of Australia and the High Commission of Australia, as well as representatives from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Malaysian central bank, and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Nigel Cory of the Australian High Commission here in Kuala Lumpur and Arjuna Nadaraja of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department in Canberra had raised the possibility of holding a Legal Services Roundtable when they met me in early October 2008.  I was very supportive of the idea.  Such a roundtable discussion would provide members of the Malaysian Bar an opportunity to directly discuss the issue of liberalisation of legal services with representatives of the Australian legal profession.  Sometimes these interactions can prove to be more productive and fruitful when compared to the formal exchanges made by official representatives from either side.

A previous roundtable to discuss services liberalisation was held in Canberra in March 2006.  This was done in conjunction with an earlier round of the Australia-Malaysia Trade Negotiating Committee to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement.  That roundtable involved representatives from diverse sectors of the services industry of both Australia and Malaysia, and not limited to just legal services.  During that roundtable, then President of the Law Council of Australia, John North, suggested a time-limited opening up of the Malaysian legal services market to Australian legal services providers of approximately 2-3 years to test the waters.  This was to show Malaysian practitioners that Australian practitioners would not “swamp” the Malaysian legal services market in the event of an opening up of the Malaysian legal services market.

Although this suggestion was not followed through by either side, the Law Council of Australia continues to argue that Malaysian legal practitioners have nothing to fear from an opening up of the legal services market to Australian legal practitioners.  Jim Dunstan has consistently assured us that the Law Council of Australia supports the idea of a joint venture between Australian and Malaysian law firms instead of a stand-alone approach.  Indeed this joint law venture model has formed a key element in the Bar Council’s proposals for the liberalisation of the legal services market in Malaysia.  We strongly feel that such a joint law venture model will provide a gradualised opening up of the legal services market in Malaysia.  It will also ensure a level playing field for all foreign legal practitioners intending to enter the Malaysian legal services market.

The Bar Council submitted proposals to amend the Legal Profession Act 1976 to both the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in November 2004.  Since then Malaysia has focused much attention on bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements.  Along the way the Malaysian International Islamic Finance Centre initiative has been launched, as has the ASEAN Charter and the ASEAN Economic Community.  And more recently in response to the global financial crisis the government of Malaysia has challenged itself to see how new areas of her economy, such as the services sector, could provide fresh impetus for and serve as an engine of economic growth.  Consequently, the Bar Council has been requested to re-look its 2004 proposals in the context of a wider and more extensive roadmap for trade in services liberalisation. This encompasses re-thinking the definition of permitted practice areas, modes of liberalisation, and time-frames to lift equity restrictions.

You should also be aware that a mini-budget will be proposed by the Minister of Finance to the Malaysian Parliament on 10 March 2009, and it is said to contain some measures relating to the liberalisation of trade in services.  These measures are based on a Cabinet paper presented by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which has been accepted.  There is also an on-going trade and economic policy review being undertaken by the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department which is targeted to be completed in May 2009.

However the global financial crisis also threatens the rice-bowls of Malaysian practitioners.  When coupled with the perceived threat that will come from foreign legal practitioners, some of our members feel anxious.  Others see the possibilities and potential that could arise from joint law ventures with foreign legal practitioners.  Hence a roundtable such as this allows our practitioners to hear directly from their Australian counterparts about the ups and downs of liberalisation of trade in legal services.

So without attempting to characterise or predict the outcome of this roundtable, may I once again welcome all participants, and wish everyone a frank and fruitful discussion.     


Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan

President

Malaysian Bar