Senior officials from the Boao Forum for Asia said Friday in
Boao, Hainan province that they are committed to developing
regional integration in order to benefit the entire "Asian
family.''
The forum will open its second two-day annual conference in
Boao, a small town in South China's Hainan Province on Sunday.
Fidel V. Ramos, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Forum,
told a press conference that the organization will "bring together
various elements of the Asian family'' and, in the future, make
Asia a region similar to the European Union and the North America
free trade zone in terms of integration.
Ramos, former president of the Philippines, said China is
playing a crucial role in promoting regional integration because it
provides a huge market for Asian countries.
Meanwhile, China's development will also allow it to make
investments and transfer technology to other Asian countries, said
Ramos, who was one of the major initiators of the forum, the only
non-official international organization in Asia, three years
ago.
He wants China to be "a big brother'' of the Asian family and
act as a major force in the settlement of conflicts in the
"family,'' such as the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
Long Yongtu, secretary-general of the forum, said at the press
conference that China's policy is to make her neighbours richer by
letting them share the benefits of China's development.
So far about 1,000 delegates from political, economic and
academic circles have confirmed their attendance at the forum,
including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
The themes of conference is " Asia Searching for Win-Win
Development through Co-operation.''
Officials and experts will look at the prospects for the
development of the Asian economy, review the prospects for economic
and trade co-operation in Asia and discuss financial security and
co-operation in Asia.
The forum is an authoritative think-tank organization and the
highest dialogue platform for exploring Asian issues, said Long,
who led the negotiations for China's entry into the World Trade
Organization.
(China Daily November 1, 2003)