SHANGHAI: Building on the success of three editions in France, the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society unveils the first edition of the Women's Forum Asia in Shanghai today.

With 700 guests and participants from around the world, the three-day event aims to be an international platform for influential women leaders to share their opinions on economic, political and social issues.

Growth and sustainability are the themes of the forum. Featuring interactive exchanges through plenary debates, brainstorming sessions and networking, the forum will address women's roles in meeting the new challenges facing the world today and how they can make a difference.

"Bringing the Women's Forum to Asia, specifically China, is greatly significant," said Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, founder and president of The Women's Forum for the Economy and Society in France.

"Women play a key role in the Asian economies and societies, and Chinese women seem to be extremely committed to the emergence of a new civil society with a private economy and new functioning rules, more open to the outside environment and integrated in the global world.

Yan Lan, vice-chairperson of Women's Forum Asia, said during a press conference yesterday: "The Forum will certainly provide a unique venue for Asian women to exchange opinions on women's roles in growth and sustainability. This topic concerns not only Asian people, but also the future of our planet."

The Women's Forum for the Economy and Society is a private initiative founded in France in 2005. Ranked among the top five influential forums worldwide by the Financial Times in 2007, the forum has in only three years become an essential platform for elite women leaders to promote their perspectives on the key issues facing society.

(China Daily 05/15/2008 page11)