"After the country gains accession to the World Trade Organization, we will need more lawyers who can deal with even more complicated lawsuits and compete with their colleagues from foreign countries," Zhang Fusen, minister of justice, said to a gathering of more than 50 lawyers.

The gathering was to mark the fifth anniversary of the passing of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Lawyers. The law has helped establish the country's lawyer system after decades of political ups and downs.

Zhang added that apart from that, China's vigorous economic and social development also require more lawyers to provide comprehensive legal services for needy people and organizations.

The statistics from the ministry revealed that to date, China has more than 117,212 professional lawyers, up from just 200 two decades ago.

"We have made tremendous and remarkable progress in this field, but we face a gulf between China and developed countries" Zhang said.

Zhang also said most law firms in China are still small, although the total number stands at 9,691. The biggest agency only has a bit more than 100 lawyers.

Meanwhile, Zhang required that all the attorneys should boost their competence in economics, foreign languages, advanced technology and laws.

"The world is evolving so fast that our lawyer system relatively lags behind the trend of economic globalization and internationalization of trade," Zhang said.

Twenty years ago, in order to establish its lawyer system as quickly as possible, the State had relatively lower requirements for lawyers' competence, Zhang said.

"The State should redouble its efforts to train more highly qualified lawyers and increase the requirements of professional lawyers," Zhang said.

(China Daily 05/16/2001)