Former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda were elected members of the board of directors of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Thursday.

Besides Paulson and Fukuda, seven other newly elected members are former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, Li & Fung Group Chairman Victor K. Fung, China's Hainan Vice Governor Jiang Sixian, former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Mitsubishi Corporation Chairman Mikio Sasaki.

They were nominated and approved at the General Meeting of BFA members held before the forum's annual conference slated for April 9-11 in Boao in China's southern Hainan Province.

This year's BFA annual conference has attracted nearly 2,000 delegates from Asia and other parts of the world.

Established in 2001, the forum is a pan-Asian platform of dialogue for key issues affecting Asia and the world. The theme of this year's annual conference is "Green Recovery: Asia's Realistic Choice for Sustainable Growth."