Chinese lawyers are playing a key role building up the nation's economy.

Ensuring construction projects are legal is a major problem in national economic policy-making, said Gao Zongze, president of the All-China Lawyers' Association.

"Legal consultations decide if the project can go ahead or not," Gao said.

Statistics shows that more than 100,000 lawyers in China are now spreading their wings and entering virtually every aspect of life.

Beijing alone licensed its 10,000th practising lawyer on Monday, becoming the first Chinese city to break the milestone.

Chinese lawyers are encouraged to participate in not only economic but also political affairs.

In the past three years, Gao said, lawyers nationwide have recovered economic losses of more than 500 billion yuan (US$60.5 billion).

Gao made the remarks during the Sixth National Lawyers' Congress, held this week, adding that lawyers are also active in the fields of finance, stocks and futures.

About 300 lawyers nationwide participated in the congress, which is held every three years to discuss questions like how to improve the legal profession. The three-day congress concluded yesterday.

Lawyer Jing Yunchuan echoed Gao's comments. He said the most popular services he offered concern non-performing loans, real-estate development, the protection of intellectual property rights and foreign trade.

The faster the economy develops, the more business disputes will occur and the higher the number of cases, he said.

According to Gao, 1,656 lawyers have been elected as deputies of the National People's Congress, the country's legislature, and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at various levels.

(China Daily 06/17/2005 page3)