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BFA to start annual conference next week
By Xu Binglan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-14 05:43
The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA)'s annual economics conference is to be held in
Hainan from April 22-24 and will provide a venue for discussions on the major
challenges facing the region, Long Yongtu, the forum's secretary-general, said
yesterday.
 "Keynote speakers will focus on the theme of 'The New Role of Asia.' They
will provide insights on how Asia should face challenges in today's world,"
Long, China's former chief trade negotiator, told reporters in his office in
Beijing.
"Speakers will also face up to major economic issues such as energy and we
will not avoid sensitive issues such as co-operation in Northeast Asia," Long
said.
The conference, the fourth one since the forum's establishment in 2001, will
also offer an Asian perspective of the global economy. A roundtable meeting will
be staged on the topic. Speakers include China's central bank chief Zhou
Xiaochuan, World Trade Organization Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi and
Henry Tang, Hong Kong's financial secretary.
Long said one of conference's highlights will be a plenary dedicated to
Northeast Asia. Speakers at the session include Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan's former
foreign minister and now special assistant to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi; Zheng Bijian, president of the China Reform Forum; and Chung Moon-Soo,
presidential economic policy adviser of the Republic of Korea.
The three are expected to provide their analysis of Northeast Asia's
problems, where the continent's three biggest economies are located. The area
has been making headlines in recent years because of the nuclear issue of the
Korean Peninsula and Japan's uneasy relations with its neighbours.
He said the forum included many topics that would interest business people
because the forum is mainly about economic and business issues. There will be
sessions on Sino-Australian co-operation in the energy sector, business
opportunities in Asia's third-generation communications market, and China's real
estate industry.
About 800 participants will attend the conference and 700 of them will be
from the business world. About 60 global CEOs from multinationals and 40 chief
executives for multinational companies' Asian operations will also be turning
up.
Other participants that are expected to attract attention include Jia
Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference; Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's Minister Mentor; Donald
Tsang, acting chief executive Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Kamal
Kharazi, Iranian foreign minister.
(China Daily 04/14/2005 page2)
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