Asian solidarity stabilizer for a volatile world

As the world grapples with geopolitical turbulence and economic uncertainty, the Boao Forum for Asia stands as a beacon of cooperation, dialogue, and collective progress.

While it brings together leaders, policymakers, and business visionaries to forge solutions to shared challenges, the forum is far more than just an annual gathering of movers and shakers, it is a vital platform for advancing Asian solidarity, sustainable development, and a just multipolar world order.

In an era where some developing countries are retrenching into protectionism and bloc confrontation, the forum embodies Asia's commitment to open regionalism and win-win collaboration.

As an important member of the big Asian family and the host country of the Boao Forum for Asia, China is committed to promoting high-quality development and high-standard opening-up. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Chinese President Xi Jinping proposing the building of an Asian community with a shared future. Over the past decade, Asia has developed into the world's most vibrant economy with strong resilience. China has played a pivotal role in this, not only promoting regional trade and investment, but also stabilizing the international environment. The scale and growth effects the Chinese economy generates provide huge market opportunities for neighboring countries.

According to the Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress Annual Report 2025 released by the Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday, the proportion of the GDP of Asian economies in the world is expected to rise from 48.1 percent in 2024 to 48.6 percent in 2025, calculated by purchasing power parity.

So as the global economy faces rising instability and uncertainty, the international community is paying high attention to what is happening in Asia. The Boao Forum for Asia Annual Meeting 2025, being held in Hainan from Tuesday to Friday, has attracted the participation of more than 1,500 entrepreneurs, researchers and officials from more than 60 countries and regions, who will seek to pool their wisdom on ways to stabilize regional growth, facilitate regional and global trade and promote sustainable development.

To that end, topics such as building trust, maintaining the stability of the global supply chains, strengthening monetary and financial policymaking coordination, developing global free trade ports, exploring the potential of regional free trade arrangements, and cross-border e-commerce cooperation, and steering the healthy development of clean energy industry and green economy are included in the agenda of this year's annual meeting.

These topics themselves and the discussions on them in respective sub-forums during the event reflect the broad consensus of the Asian business community, industrial circles, economic policymakers and researchers that they need to step up their collaboration, exchanges and coordination.

To create the necessary conditions for that to happen, as Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang stressed in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the event on Thursday, the Asian family should continually strengthen its mutual trust, promote opening-up, carry out win-win cooperation and seek peaceful coexistence.

It is to be hoped this year's meeting will help Asian economies grasp the overriding trend of universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, so that they can make better use of Asia's strengths in manufacturing, resources and technology and the complementarity strengths of regional economies to consolidate the foundation for the sustainable growth of the regional economy and trade.

In doing so, the forum can demonstrate that the future of global development must be shaped by collective wisdom, not the dictates of a privileged few.