The fourth annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), slated from April 22 to 24 in Boao, a coastal holiday resort in southernmost China's Hainan Province, will take a "more down-to-earth stance" and be more ready to meet requirements of entrepreneurs, said BFA Secretary General Long Yongtu.

The annual meeting of BFA this year will attract a cluster of heads of businesses with global influence, Long said. Big names will include Haire, Lenovo, Sinopec, PetroChina, CITIC, Everbright Banking, China Life Insurance and China Pacific Insurance from China and TNT (Netherlands), UPS Asia, Citigroup, BMW, Merrill Lynch, Ericsson, Microsoft and Woodside from abroad.

"Every BFA annual meeting hereafter will be operated into a grand assembly of entrepreneurs from all over the world," Long said. "The forum will provide a platform for domestic entrepreneurs to exchange views face-to-face with their counterparts from abroad. The high-profile communication will be helpful for Chinese businesses to sharpen their competitive edge."

This year's BFA meeting will feature two major topics -- international cooperation in energy development and monetary polices. Top concerns of attendees include the internationalization of Asian enterprises, Asian businesses' corporate governance and competitiveness on the world market, equity markets and companies' social accountability amid economic growth, He said.

Long said two exclusive symposiums will be organized at the BFA annual meeting -- one will on property development and the other on motor vehicle manufacturing.

An notable change in the format for the upcoming three-day event will be a five-minute time limit for each speaker's initial presentation, Long said. More time will be set aside for questions and answers.

A meeting will be arranged between entrepreneurs and ministers from different governments, which will allow better awareness of governmental policies among entrepreneurs he said.

Long has been secretary general of the BFA since its second annual meeting. Talking about his personal dream about the forum, Long said he hoped he might help cultivate a group of world-class entrepreneurs by making use of connections he had established in international negotiations.

Source: Xinhua