The Shenzhen Municipal Foreign Affairs Office issued its first civil and commercial affair Apostille Certificates to local enterprises Tuesday morning, marking the implementation of the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents in China since Tuesday.

From Tuesday on, official documents exchanged between China and other signatory countries will only require an Apostille Certificate issued by the originating country. Consular authentication is no longer required, as reported by Xinhua. This is an effort to streamline the cross-border circulation of documents, replacing the traditional “dual authentication” system with a new one-step certification model based on the Apostille Certificate within the convention’s framework.

This development means that Shenzhen residents and businesses can complete the certification of overseas documents without having to travel back and forth to consulate offices in Guangzhou. The time required for document processing can be reduced from around 20 working days to just a few working days, potentially saving an estimated 300 million yuan (US$41.18 million) in certification costs for both Chinese and foreign individuals and businesses each year. The move will contribute to Shenzhen’s market regulations, reduce cross-border trade costs, and minimize legal risks for enterprises.

Zheng Zhong, general manager of ZTE’s public affairs department, said that the new mode will benefit enterprises involved in international businesses. For ZTE, a company serving over 160 countries and regions with numerous employees regularly traveling abroad, the previous certification process was arduous, taking over a month and incurring costs ranging from hundreds to thousands of yuan.

“With the new convention in effect, we can now receive certificates within three to five working days, authorized for use in 125 countries, making overseas business expansion more efficient and cost-effective,” Zheng said.

Liu Jiguang, deputy manager of the technical regulation department at Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd., also praised the convention’s enforcement. He said that before joining the convention, product registration for overseas markets mandated certification from various countries’ embassies and consulates. “With the new process, the Shenzhen foreign affairs office will handle certification, simplifying procedures, and saving an estimated 500,000 yuan annually for our company, reducing document processing time by 75%,” Liu said.

China acceded to the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents on March 8. On Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry held a ceremony to mark the implementation of the convention in China.

The Hague Convention is the most widely applicable and heavily subscribed international treaty under the framework of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

As of Oct. 31, it had 125 contracting parties, encompassing three-fifths of the world’s countries and regions, including the European Union member states, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Germany, Australia, Russia, and the majority of China’s major trading partners participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.