The new leadership of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) said on May 14 that the forum would firmly support globalization to help achieve mutual development in Asia and beyond.

Newly-elected BFA chairman Ban Ki-moon said the BFA would work to realize the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity.

"Asia is a great beneficiary, contributor and hence a staunch supporter of globalization," Ban, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, said, noting that the "Asian Miracle" largely stemmed from globalization and free trade.

Echoing Ban's remarks, BFA vice chair Zhou Xiaochuan attributed the historic success and transformation taking place both in China and Asia to "economic reform and opening up."

"There has been a consensus that China's achievements are due to its consistent national policy of reform and opening up," said the former governor of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank. "China must continue its policy for the next decades with bold economic reform and wider opening to the world."

The year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, and the country has already moved to push for deeper integration into the world economy, with measures to grant foreign investors easier market access and ensure a level playing field.

Zhou, also China's chief representative to BFA, said he believed the country's experience was equally important to Asia and the world, saying the BFA would continue to promote an open and innovative Asia for the greater prosperity of the world at large.

The BFA aims for "a first-class economic forum for dialogues and cooperation with a global perspective," BFA secretary-general and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong said, adding that the forum would go beyond Asia and reach out to other regions.

"In face of a rapidly changing and increasingly sophisticated world, the BFA, as the premier forum for Asia and emerging markets, will strive to keep pace with the changing times and become a front runner and key player," Li said.

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.

This year's BFA conference, which ran from April 8 to 11 in Boao, a town in the southern island province of Hainan, had the theme "An Open and Innovative Asia for a World of Greater Prosperity."

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2018)