About BFA

Profile

Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) is a nongovernmental and nonprofit international organization with a fixed conference date and domicile. 

Proposed in 1998 by Fidel V. Ramos, former President of the Philippines, Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia, and Morihiro Hosokawa, former Prime Minister of Japan, BFA was formally inaugurated on Feb 27, 2001. Boao, in Hainan province, is the permanent site of the BFA Headquarters. Since 2002, BFA has been holding its annual conference at Boao.

BFA has won great support from Asian countries and drawn the attention of the whole world. It has become a high-end platform for dialog among leaders of national governments, industrial and business circles, and academic circles of countries in Asia and other continents about important issues in Asia and elsewhere. BFA is dedicated to helping Asian countries achieve common development through further integration of the regional economy. 

The purpose of BFA is to base itself in Asia and promote and deepen economic exchange, coordination, and cooperation within Asia and between Asia and other parts of the world. It also offers a high-end dialog platform for governments, enterprises, experts, and scholars to discuss economics, society, and environment and other relevant issues. Through its working network of political, business, and academic circles, BFA will serve ever-growing intra-member economic cooperation and links with outside entities. 

History

Since the 1950s, through their own efforts, Asian countries have made remarkable achievements in economic and social development and have steadily increased their influence in international and regional affairs. During the past two to three decades, Asia's economy as a whole has been developing rapidly. The economy of East Asia has been accelerating, recognized by the world as the East Asian Miracle, one of the greatest economic development achievements of the period. Although Asia suffered a heavy blow from the financial crisis at the end of the 20th century, its economy has quickly recovered through self-adjustment and reform. 

On account of the opening policy pursued by most Asian countries, trade and investment links between them have been increasingly strengthened. Various forms of bilateral, regional, sub-regional, and trans-regional cooperation have been gradually unfolding. Their cooperation and exchange in industry and commerce, finance, science and technology, transportation, and culture keep on growing. The ASEAN and China, Japan, and South Korea (10+3) mechanism has entered a substantive stage. Sub-regional cooperation represented by ASEAN economic integration, great Mekong economic cooperation, and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation is underway. Trans-regional cooperation represented by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and East Asia-Latin America Forum (EALAF) is also forging ahead. It can be fairly stated that the prospects of Asian economic development and cooperation are very bright. 

In the 21st century, economic globalization and regionalization continue to develop. With European economic integration picking up speed and the North American Free Trade Area under further development, Asian countries are faced with great opportunities as well as many severe challenges. This requires them to strengthen their cooperation with other parts of the world and enhance exchange and cooperation among themselves. In fact, it is now their common task to seek a way to cope with the challenges brought about by globalization, to maintain the healthy economic growth of Asia, and to strengthen their coordination and cooperation. 

Although Asian countries had participated in many international conferences and organizations such as APEC and PECC, Asia as a whole lacked a forum, led by Asians and guided from perspectives of Asian interests and views, dedicated to the discussion of Asian issues and aimed at enhancing cooperation and exchanges among Asian countries, and between Asian countries and other parts of the world. Against this backdrop, in September 1998, Ramos, Hawke and Hosokawa proposed the establishment of an Asian Forum, one similar to the World Economic Forum headquartered in Davos. 

The idea of an "Asian Forum", once put forward, was unanimously accepted by the related Asian countries. On October 8 1999, Vice Chinese President Hu Jintao met in Beijing with Ramos and Hawke. After the briefing by the initiators of the conceived forum, Hu said that the Chinese Government always supports and attaches importance to multi-level, multi-channel and multi-form regional cooperation and dialog. He regarded the establishment of the forum as conducive to promoting understanding, trust, and cooperation among the countries of the region. The Chinese government would study the idea prudently and positively and provide all necessary support and cooperation. Meanwhile, Hu emphasized that since the recognition, understanding and support of the related governments was vital to the establishment of the forum, China wished to further acquaint itself with the responses of other countries on this issue. Enquiries were followed with positive responses from the governments of the related countries in Asia. 

Against this backdrop, the BFA Inauguration Ceremony was held Feb. 26-27 2001 in Boao. Former leaders of 26 countries, including Ramos, Hawke, Yasuhiro Nakasone, former Prime Minister of Japan, Sergey Terechshenko, former Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, and Punsalmaa Ochirbat, former President of Mongolia, attended the Ceremony. Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir bin Mohammad, the late King of Nepal H.M. BirendraBirBikram Shah Dev, and Vietnamese Vice Prime Minister Mr. Nguyen Manh Cam, also graced the occasion as the Guests of Honor and addressed the ceremony. BFA was officially launched at the ceremony, and its Declaration, Guidelines and Charter were adopted. The Inauguration was a great success and gained extensive attention from the international community.

With BFA headquartered at Boao, a proposal was put forward to Chinese leaders by some former Asian leaders. They held that Hainan, China's largest special economic zone, was an experimental area for China to deepen its connection with the international community. Aiming to become an ecology-based province, Hainan has told the world that its current and future development focus is and will be on ecological industry, a field valued highly by Asian and international communities and matching world economic development trends. In addition, Boao is a comprehensive functional area specially designed for BFA and featuring ecology, leisure spending, tourism, intelligence, and conference and exhibition services, and has a very agreeable natural geographical environment. In October 1999, when meeting with BFA initiators, Hu promised support and cooperation in the establishment of BFA. The Hainan Provincial Government has offered actual support in many fields to the BFA and promises to continue to do so.