The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 will be held from March 25 to 28 in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province, with the theme “Asia in the changing World: Towards a shared Future.”
This year’s event will focus on development, foster dialogue, explore innovative formats and value tangible outcomes, all aimed at promoting international development and cooperation, according to BFA’s official website.
The theme is intended to reinvigorate multilateralism, promote openness and development, jointly respond to global challenges, and carry out the commitments of the UN Summit of the Future while focusing on the development of Asia, it said.
Many heads of international and regional organizations, ministerial-level officials, entrepreneurs of Fortune Global 500, and renowned experts and scholars have already confirmed their participation in the annual conference.
The event will focus on four subject areas: building trust and promoting cooperation in a fast-changing world; re-balancing globalization for inclusive development; accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals for more effective responses to global challenges; and strengthening AI application and governance for innovation-driven development.
Discussions will also be held on topics related to AI application and governance, as well as the exploration of measures to bridge the digital divide and improve digital connectivity through digital capacity building, according to the official website.
BFA bridges Asia and the world
“Since the beginning of this century, the share of developing countries in the world economy has increased from 20 percent to more than 40 percent. The economic development of developing countries has made a great contribution to world economic growth. However, compared with the population share of about 84 percent, the economic share of developing countries is still low,” Cui Fan, professor of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told CGTN on Friday.
The population of Asia accounts for more than 60 percent of the world’s population, and the vast majority of Asian countries are developing countries, the professor added, noting that the BFA is an important platform for Asians to speak out and should be an important place for Asia to carry out South-South cooperation and North-South dialogue.
“The current international trade system, international monetary system, and international security system are all facing changes. The Boao Forum for Asia should not only become a forum to promote the practice of regional cooperation in Asia but also a forum for Asians to put forward their own views on the development direction of the global system,” Cui said.
Noting that trade protectionism and unilateralism are currently severely impacting the multilateral trading system and endangering global economic growth, Cui said that further promoting the steady expansion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on the basis of existing cooperation is a direction worth striving for in solving the relevant issues.
“Asia is an important engine of global economic growth, and its future development faces both opportunities and challenges,” said Jiang Ying, Deloitte China chair and a national political advisor, in an interview published on Friday.
“The Boao Forum for Asia is an open and confrontational dialogue platform. It has played a unique role in gathering consensus among all parties, deepening regional cooperation, jointly promoting development, and solving global and regional problems and has become an important bridge connecting China and the world,” said Jiang.
Challenges and uncertainties in the current changing world are hindering the prospects for global economic growth, which poses a challenge to the rules-based world order and brings many difficulties to the development of global business and industry, said Denis Depoux, global managing director at Roland Berger.
With its open and inclusive nature, the Boao Forum for Asia provides an important platform for constructive dialogue around the world, which will help strengthen cooperation and promote prosperity in a turbulent global environment, Depoux noted.
Founded in 2001, the BFA is a non-governmental and non-profit international organization committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries closer to their development goals.
