HAINAN - The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2024 started on Thursday in Boao town located next to the eastern coastal city of Qionghai in Hainan Province, in the South China Sea.

Ban Ki-moon, chairman of the BFA and former United Nations secretary-general, was the first speaker in the opening ceremony of the conference.

In his address, Ban Ki-moon reviewed the challenges facing the world today and encouraged the participants to think about reality with a dialectical perspective and to collectively create the future through responsible actions.

Ban Ki-moon concluded that the urgent climate crisis has led to a historic consensus at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, but the reality requires the world to take more effective actions to make further progress. He expressed concern about the uncertain trends in geopolitical and geo-economic spheres, as well as the restructuring of global supply, trade, and investment flows, while inclusive globalization is being sacrificed.

Recalling his years of work at the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon mentioned that he has witnessed both good times and difficult periods. In the "good times," the world enjoyed the benefits of global peace dividends and rapid globalization, while in the "bad days," the world divided into opposing camps and blocs. He emphasized that under no circumstances should we return to the "bad days," and the only way forward is unity, cooperation, multilateralism, globalization, and an open world economy.

Ban Ki-moon stated that global crises compel us to work together. We face common challenges and should share responsibility. He called upon leaders from Asia and around the globe to step forward, speak truth to power, and take decisive actions, to shape the future through words and deeds, and to live up to the high expectations of the people.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Samdech Techo Hun Sen, the president of the Supreme Privy Council to the King of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit, Daren Tang, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were among the other speakers of the ceremony.

The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), initiated by 25 Asian countries and Australia (increased to 28 in 2006), is a non-profit organisation that hosts high-level forums for leaders from government, business and academia in Asia and other continents to share their vision on the most pressing issues in this region and the world at large. BFA is modelled on the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland. Its fixed address is in Boao, Hainan Province, China, which has been the permanent venue for the annual conference since 2002.

It is worth mentioning that China International Press Communication Center (CIPCC) has arranged a trip for journalists from Asian countries to Hainan Province to attend BFA 2024 annual conference.

CIPCC, under the China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA), has initiated a program to build a platform for the media from countries around the world, especially developing countries, to observe China and study development in this country.

The program aimed at media exchange was halted in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

In each edition of the program, journalists from all around the world gather together to get familiar with the modern China and exchange their experiences in the field of journalism.

In 2024 edition of the program, scheduled to be held from late February until late June, over 100 journalists from more than 90 countries are participating.