Boao forum to highlight China reform

Graphics: GT

The annual Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) opened Tuesday, with themes expected to highlight China's economic reform and integration of the Asian economy.  [Special coverage]

The four-day forum, intended to bring Asian development issues to the fore, is held in permanent headquarters in Boao, South China's Hainan province.

Premier Li Keqiang will deliver a keynote speech at the annual meeting's opening ceremony on Thursday. He will be joined by nine foreign leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won and others from Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Laos and Vietnam.

The annual meeting is aimed at providing new thinking and angles for reform based on consensus, through discussions from political and business leaders as well as scholars. There will be nearly 60 panel discussions, with topics ranging from reshaping finance and trade in Asia, the shifting global supply chain to the rise of Asia's consumer market.

Economic reforms in China are expected to be the most discussed topics, Chen Zhiwu, a finance professor at Yale University, told the Global Times.

"Without the continuation of systematic reforms, the Chinese government's role in the market will expand, which will weigh on the economy," Chen said.

A sweeping reform package was unveiled after a key Party plenum in November 2013, which was regarded by many observers as "reform 2.0" for the world's second largest economy. The blueprint for reform stressed that the market will play a more "decisive" role in resource allocation.

Boao always presents a variety of interesting topics to discuss, said Stephen P. Groff, vice president of the Asian Development Bank. "Anything discussing about deepening financial reform, and integration across Asia is important, as it is about the future of Asia," he told the Global Times.

Deepening economic cooperation broadly across Asia is important to increase trade and financial intermediation within Asia, he noted.

Equally important is deepening financial cooperation which means keeping the wealth a region generates and investing them in productive investments in Asia as opposed to sending them to treasuries and securities in developed countries, he said.

Structural changes in China's economy are a good thing for the resiliency and sustainability for economic growth in the long run, he noted.

Asia and emerging economies are in a critical period of reform in 2014, Zhou Wenzhong, secretary-general of the forum, said at a press conference ahead of the forum.

Asian economies have kept a strong growth momentum in economic integration, but in recent years, Asian trade has slowed, and so has integration of Asian economies. Asian countries and regions must continue to push for economic integration and search for new growth engines through structural reform, Zhou said.