About Boao Forum for Asia

Boao Forum for Asia (“BFA”) is a non-government, and not-for-profit international organization. Initiated 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 in February 2001 with 28 initial countries, and with unprecedented representation and government support. The Forum has since attracted wide global attention as it works towards its mission. Starting from 2002, the annual conference is held in Boao, Hainan Province, the People’s Republic of China, the permanent headquarters of the Forum.

With strong Asian perspectives, BFA commits itself in promoting common development of all Asian countries through international cooperation, including greater regional and global economic integration and social responsibility. It provides a platform in facilitating high level dialogues to discuss Asian and global issues among government, business and academia from across the world. Through eight years’ development, BFA has become one of the most active and influential international economic forums.

Among state and business leaders participating in BFA Annual Conferences are: Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, former US President George W. Bush, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Michael Rudd, Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Prime Minister of Republic of Korea Lee Han-Dong, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Vietnamese Prime Minister Tan Dung Nguyen, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Mongolian Prime Minister Sanjaagiin Bayar, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev, Finland President Matti Vanhanen, Chilean President Michelle Jeria Bachelet, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, and Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize Laureate, Founder of Grameen Bank, Bangladesh. Chief Executives of Hong Kong and Macao SAR attended every year’s BFA Annual Conference.

Its Mission

Towards realization of its vision, the Forum will endeavor to :

• Provide a platform for high-level interactions among representatives of Governments, business leaders and academic scholars to further and deepen trade and investment ties, promote partnerships and evolve different perspectives on emerging global economic challenges.
• Gain deeper understanding of the diversity of the region through wider discussion of culture and arts, and foster a deeper sense of social responsibility amongst private enterprises within Asia.
• Develop an enabling environment and strengthen synergies for the promotion and growth of business enterprises with the goal of attaining sustainable economic progress in the region.
• Nurture and promote the concept of intra-regional institutional networking and region-wide strategic links with the objective of enhancing trade and investment opportunities arising from globalization, both within the region and in the rest of the world.
• Provide intellectual leadership for developing human resources and further research issues of importance, both internal to the region and in its relationship with the rest of the world.