BEIJING — A total of 11.73 million notarizations were handled by 13,620 licensed notaries across China in 2020, according to a government official.

The licensed notaries were employed by nearly 3,000 notary institutions across the country, said Xiong Xuanguo, vice-minister of justice, at a press conference on May 27.

The notarizations mainly concerned environmental protection, intellectual property rights, international trade, and civil and commercial activities such as gifting, inheritance and contract performance, said Xiong.

He added that documents of notarization issued by Chinese notary institutions had been sent to more than 180 countries and regions for use.