ABLI at Data Interoperability and Security Development in Greater Bay Area and 2020 Annual Forum of the Data Governance and Cyber Security Research Alliance

On 5 January 2020, ABLI’s Dr Clarisse Girot was invited to conclude the morning session of the first Forum for Data Interoperability and Security Development in China’s Greater Bay Area (Guangdong, Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR) held in Zhuhai, China, together with the 2020 Annual Forum of the Data Governance and Cyber ​​Security Research Alliance. Both events sought to pave the ways towards the establishment of an institutional framework and governance structure for secure and orderly data flows and data sharing in the Greater Bay Area. The event was particularly significant in the context of Mainland China’s current efforts to pass its Data Protection Law in the next legislative planning year, the review of Hong Kong SAR’s Data Protection Ordinance and the recent adoption of Macau SAR’s Cyber Security Law.

Data protection regulators and practitioners from both China and overseas presented on their respective experiences and frameworks for personal data protection and cross-border data flows, data sharing risk prevention, standardization and cross-border compliance by multinationals. Experts from the European Union and Asia Pacific also shared their insights and lessons in promoting data sharing and integration.

In her remarks, Dr Girot made suggestions to promote legal certainty and convergence between data protection laws and regulations to facilitate multi-jurisdictional compliance in the Asia region, building on previous presentations on the latest legislative developments and regulatory priorities in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Singapore and EU by Director Liang Bo of the Cyberspace Administration of China, Professor Zhou Hanhua of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Stephen Kay-yi Wong, Hong Kong’s Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Yang Chong-wei, Macau’s Data Protection Coordinator, Deputy Commissioner Yeong Zee Kin of the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore, and Professor Nico van Eijk of University of Amsterdam, respectively.

ABLI is also proud that many contributors who volunteered for the Chinese translation of our Regulation of Cross-border Transfers of Personal Data in Asia were key contributors at the Forum, with Dr Hong Yanqing as the Emcee and Ms Meng Jie, Mr Zhao Ranran and Ms Zhu Lingfeng joining other data protection officers in the roundtable discussion on the latest developments in global compliance adopted by multinational companies.

The official report (in Chinese) for this highly-publicized event may be found here.

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