The Ministry of Justice today certified 42 Hong Kong lawyers as public notaries, authorizing them to act as agents for legal affairs in inland areas for HK residents and firms.

They are the first group of HK lawyers appointed as public notaries by the Chinese government after HK's return in 1997.

The public notary system has served as an important bridge between inland areas and Hong Kong, which have different legal systems, Vice-Premier Qian Qichen told the new notaries today in Beijing.

He said he believed more professionals would participate in the system because the demand for handling legal cases involving HK residents and firms would increase dramatically due to the boom in HK-inland exchanges.

The Ministry of Justice introduced the notary system in 1981. A total of 251 HK lawyers appointed to the positions have handled more than 500,000 inland legal cases involving HK residents and businesses, according to the Justice Minister Gao Changli.

Studying inland laws and learning to speak Putonghua, the standard Chinese pronunciation which is different from the Guangdong dialect spoken in HK, have become trendy among local lawyers, according to a HK lawyer attending today's ceremony.