Policy to stay

President Hu Jintao told the world at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2008 on Saturday that the country will continue to adhere to the reform and opening up policy.

Hainan, where the annual gathering dubbed as the Asian version of Davos Forum convenes, is one of the best showcases of the policy. Designating the island and other four cities - Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen - as special economic zones, the country has succeeded in experimenting with its reform and opening up policy.

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in late 1978 heralded a new era of China that was committed to reforming and opening itself to the outside world. The policy has transformed the most populous nation into the world's fourth largest economy in the past three decades.