On January 14, the Secretariat of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) held a press conference in Beijing to announce that the BFA Annual Conference 2020 (AC 2020) will be held from March 24 to 27 in Boao, Hainan around the theme of "A World in Change: Bond Together for a Shared Future."

 The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) press conference on January 14, 2020.

According to Li Baodong, Secretary General of the BFA, the preliminary agenda will be composed of more than 50 sessions, which feature five modules: Development Trends, Industrial Changes, Forefront of Innovation, Beautiful Life and Global Governance, which respectively highlight the keywords of change (as the background), reform (as the solution), innovation (as the driver), development (as the goal) and cooperation (as the key).

The "Development Trends" module highlights macro issues with a focus on the analysis of changes, and covers world economic outlook, geopolitics, regional cooperation agreements, climate change and free trade zones and free ports.

The "Industrial Changes" module addresses issues in various sectors of the economy, with a focus on how to deepen reforms and opening-up and how to regain growth momentum through structural reforms in the current global context. It covers manufacturing transition, the platform economy, business environment, monetary policy, finance opening, capital flow and retail.

The "Forefront of Innovation" module keeps a close watch on the new wave of technological and industrial revolutions and its direction, with a focus on identifying new growth drivers for the world, including 5G, artificial intelligence, fintech, big data, future cities and space exploration.

The "Beautiful Life" module explores developmental issues from a broader perspective, with a focus on how to improve people's livelihood and facilitate fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals. It addresses the topics of education, poverty reduction, aging, youth, women, health, culture, tourism, media and sports. 

The "Global Governance" module explores opportunities and challenges in international and regional politics and economies, with an emphasis on strengthening international cooperation amid changes and providing intellectual support for improving global governance. The module covers issues such as G20 cooperation, digital currency governance, economic security and the Belt and Road Initiative.

In addition, Li said that BFA will launch six flagship reports, namely "Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress 2020", "Free Trade Agreements: Asia's Choice", "Asian Financial Development Report on Financial Inclusion", "Report on Asia Poverty Reduction 2020", "Innovation Report", and "Report on the First Conference of the Global Health Forum".

The BFA is a high-level cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary and trans-sectoral dialogue platform. Since its inception, the BFA, based in Asia and with a global outlook, has increasingly become an important bridge for communication and interaction between eastern and western political, business and academic communities. As the flagship event of the BFA, AC 2020 will bring together more than 2,000 participants to share perspectives and insights on the development of Asia and the world, including heads of state/government, leaders of international organizations, ministers, business leaders, economists and media representatives.

(source: boaoforum.org)