Boao Forward: Breaking Global Challenges This year's annual meeting presents four highlights

Beijing, 3 Mar (ZXS) -- Topic: Boao Forward-looking: Breaking the Global Challenge This year's annual meeting presents four major highlights

China News Agency reporter Wang Enbo

The Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2023 is about to be held. Judging from the latest conference schedule, this year's annual meeting faces a number of current global challenges and seeks ways to break the game.

-- Solving the world economic dilemma

Entering the new year, the world economy has not shown a new atmosphere. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have successively lowered their global growth forecasts for 2023, and many major economies are facing downward pressure.

High inflation is a major challenge for the world economy. However, when controlling inflation has become the primary policy goal of some developed economies, the aggressive shift in monetary policy has led to risks such as "thunder" in the US and European banking industries and rising debt in developing countries. In this context, the topic of "inflation, stagflation and interest rate hikes" has been included in the agenda of this year's annual meeting, and participants will focus on how to strike a balance between tightening monetary policy and promoting economic recovery.

Asia is one of the few bright spots in the world economy right now, with IMF experts predicting that Asian countries will contribute more than 70 percent of global growth this year. The Boao Forum for Asia naturally does not lack Asian voices, and in sub-forums such as "World Economic Outlook" and "Asian Regional Cooperation: New Opportunities, New Challenges", people can find oriental inspiration for the world economy to cope with challenges and get out of difficulties.

– Stimulating the momentum of global cooperation

Factors such as the spread of the epidemic and geopolitical conflicts have exacerbated the trend of "anti-globalization" that has risen in recent years. The abuse of financial sanctions and the promotion of economic "decoupling" by some countries have added artificial obstacles to the already difficult process of globalization.

Is globalization over? In response to this confusion, a number of conferences such as "Reshaping Globalization" and "Global Free Trade Port Development Forum" will focus on the prospects of globalization and explore how to promote its development in a more inclusive and balanced direction. How to better implement the WTO's multilateral trade rules and promote the free flow of goods and services internationally is also a hot topic.

In the face of headwinds to stimulate global cooperation momentum, China's "Belt and Road" initiative has made a useful attempt. Over the past decade, it has become an important global public good, enriching the mechanisms and contents of international development cooperation. In the next challenging decade, countries along the Belt and Road need to accelerate digital transformation, deepen economic and trade cooperation, and promote economic recovery. Participants in the "Belt and Road: Sharing Development Opportunities" sub-forum of this year's annual conference will explore the best path for this purpose.

– Supporting the continued recovery after the epidemic

After more than three years, it seems that the world finally has the opportunity to truly enter the "post-epidemic era". Although the coronavirus has not completely disappeared, people are trying to return to normal life. This year's Boao Forum for Asia Annual Meeting was held entirely in-person, which is a case in point.

However, the impact of the pandemic has also increased concerns about the sustainability of recovery and development. At this annual meeting, the sub-forum "Ending the Pandemic" will continue to focus on the new characteristics of virus mutations and the new trends in vaccine and drug research and development; More importantly, focus on how to build the defenses of public health systems to respond to the next crisis.

Green is the background color for a sustainable recovery after the epidemic, but under the interference of extreme weather, energy shortages and other factors, the road to achieving carbon neutrality is long. Since last year, some European countries have restarted coal power, and the difficulty of adjusting the energy structure of many countries has increased. How to better grasp "breaking" and "standing" in this process? The sub-forum "Carbon Neutrality: Dilemma and Breakthrough" attempts to solve this mandatory question for energy structure transformation.

– Decoding China's development path

To break the global challenge, the world needs to hear China's voice. The next five years will be a crucial period for the beginning of China's comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country. The Boao Forum for Asia is an important window for the outside world to perceive China's development signals.

As a key word to decode China's development path, the "Chinese-style modernization" sub-forum is expected to become the focus of this annual meeting. With the common characteristics of modernization of all countries and Chinese characteristics based on their own national conditions, the world is closely watching how China's exploration of the path of modernization provides richer options for coping with global challenges.

After the change of state institutions, China's economic policy trend has attracted attention from all sides. Especially at the 45th anniversary of reform and opening up, international public opinion generally expects China to further expand opening up and inject impetus into world economic recovery. As is customary, many senior Chinese financial officials will appear in Boao to bring the latest policy trends in various fields. What China's economy will do next will be clearer. (End)