Boao Forum: Leading Asia's Future Is Not A Dream

　　　　
In April 14th, Hainan Island, located at the southernmost tip of China, became a major focus of attention in Asia and the world. On this day, not only BRICs summit appeared in Sanya, annual Boao forum for Asia The annual meeting was also opened in the small town of Boao. As a non-governmental platform for dialogue between Asian and global affairs in Asian and other countries, governments, business and academics, the Boao Forum Annual Conference was crowned by the media a few years ago by "Asia Davos". However, in terms of the popularity and influence of the public, a signature article published in April 14th by the financial times Chinese network believes that the annual Boao forum full of ten years old is still weaker than the Davos annual meeting of the world economic forum, known as the "world economic barometer", and needs clearer positioning in the future.

In response, Mei Xinyu, an Associate Research Fellow of the international trade and Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce of China, which was interviewed by reporters on 14 may, said that the Boao forum should first seek to become an engine to promote the integration of Asia and the formation of the "Asian consensus". As Asia is vast and the economic and social differences between countries and regions are relatively large, the Boao forum can promote the formation of the East Asian consensus as the primary goal. With the achievement of this goal, China's international leadership will naturally increase, because big powers are the countries that can lead the formation of inter national consensus.

　　 Leading the future of Asia is a long-term goal.

The ten year of the Boao forum for Asia has been through the storm. China's economy Rise rapidly Regional economic integration in Asia The ten years of rapid progress are also the ten years of accelerating the biggest globalization process in world history. Data show that during this period, the share of ASEAN + China, Japan and South Korea (10+3) GDP in the world's total economy has risen from about 29% to about 35%. Broadcasting British Corporation quoted in the report that scholars believe that with the rapid development of emerging economies led by China, the Boao forum is expected to represent emerging countries and the Davos forum dominated by Europe and America.

In fact, the organizers of the Boao forum for Asia have been making efforts to this end. On the evening of 13, Zhou Wenzhong, Secretary General of the Boao forum for Asia, said that the forum was established ten years ago to "condense the Asian consensus and issue the voice of Asia". It is hoped that in the next ten years, it can develop from voice to "lead the future".

Mei Xin Yu believes that whether the Boao forum can compete with the Davos forum depends largely on the development of China's national strength. He said that the favorable conditions for the forum to lead Asia in the future are mainly the rise of the overall strength of Asia, and the internal development and differentiation. The core position of China's conglomerates has become increasingly prominent, and the cohesion and coherence in the whole region have been enhanced. The disadvantage is that external forces will stir up internal contradictions.

From the perspective of the agenda of the Boao forum annual meeting, it seems that the goal of "guiding the future" has begun to emerge. The reporter noted that the theme of "inclusive development: common agenda and new challenges" at the annual session of the year will comprehensively consider the two major contents of Asian Development and emerging economies in design, and will explore and look for Asia's sustainable development and enhanced cooperation among emerging economies, which can provide forward-looking ideas for guiding the timely transformation of Asian economies. At the same time, compared with previous years, this year's annual meeting has increased a considerable proportion of domestic and foreign macroeconomic and financial issues, including global economic trends, financial regulation, capital flows, industrial transfer, G20 role, inflation and demand engine of a new round of growth. It helps enterprises understand the macro environment that directly affects the business environment and daily decision-making.

In order to expand the international influence of the Boao forum for Asia, the Council of the Boao forum for Asia on April 13th afternoon decided to continue the pace of "stepping out of Asia". In 2011, it will hold resource meetings, capital meetings and other special conferences in Australia and France. In addition, unlike the former Asian politicians or business celebrities, two members of the Boao forum are members of the United States and Europe, namely former US Treasury Secretary Paulson and former French Prime Minister Raffarin. This is also one of the important signals that the forum is ready to go to the world, or at least helps to reduce unnecessary suspicions from outside the region. {page_break}

　　 Participants in different regions are "hot and cold".

Of course, judging from the history of the Boao forum annual meeting, the participation of different parts of Asia has always been uneven. The West Asian countries, apart from Iran, are not enthusiastic about the participation of the forum, and the most important countries in South Asia, India and the Central Asian countries that split up from the Soviet Union, have not shown great interest. For this reason, some analysts believe that the Boao forum is still largely a conference focusing on East Asia and Southeast Asia, and is still far from the "Asian Forum" in a comprehensive sense.

It is reported that only 14 of the leaders attending the BRICs summit attended the opening ceremony of the Boao Asia Forum Annual Conference, India Prime Minister Singer. At present, the directors of the Boao forum for Asia are mostly from East Asia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, and relatively few from South Asia, Central Asia and Western Asia. There are few representatives of politicians, entrepreneurs and scholars attending the Boao forum annual meeting.

In order to change this situation, Zhou Wen Chung has indicated in April 13th that the next step of the Boao forum is to attract more members from western Asia, Central Asia and South Asia.

Nevertheless, Mei Xinyu insists that it is not necessary to pull all Asian economies in the short term, and that members of Western Asia, Central Asia and South Asia should be the long-term goals of the forum. He said that the road should go one step at a time.

　　 The short-term goal should be the East Asian consensus.

　　 In fact, even in economically developed East Asia, there are still some conflicts. This has made it difficult for countries to prepare for the fast integration either psychologically or realally. The progress of integration in East Asia is not ideal. In this case, Mei Xinyu believes that it is good for East Asia to seek common ground and establish consensus.

Other East Asian results show that the enthusiasm of other countries to participate in the forum will naturally increase. He also said that the easiest areas for East Asia to reach consensus are to coordinate economic and financial sectors to get rid of external shocks, and the two is to build an integrated regional economy. It is difficult to reach a consensus in terms of territory, history and so on.

Reporters noted that since the outbreak of the current financial crisis, the process of economic and financial cooperation and integration in East Asia has accelerated significantly. ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea have not only agreed on the establishment of regional foreign exchange reserves, but are also studying the establishment of a free trade area. And last January 1st, the China ASEAN Free Trade Area (10+1) was officially launched. According to Tong Xiaoling, China's ambassador to ASEAN, if the 10+3 free trade zone is built, Asian economic integration will achieve a very high goal.