On 20 April 2021 the Boao Forum for Asia officially opened in the town of Boao in Hainan Province of the People's Republic of China. The Forum's theme is, A World in Change: Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and Advance Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Cooperation.
The aim of most of those taking part in the 2021 Forum is to strengthen mutual understanding in a post-COVID world and to create additional incentives for all-out socio-economic growth as well as cost-effective global governance. Due to the epidemiological situation, the Forum is taking place in a combined format, including videoconferences and offline meetings.
PRC President Xi Jinping opened the Forum with his special video address. Among the speakers were also Nursultan Nazarbayev, the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as the leaders of Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Chile and Sri Lanka.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov noted that the Forum had become an important global venue for reaching consensus, advancing regional economic integration, facilitating joint development and resolving Asian and worldwide problems.
The SCO Secretary-General pointed out that international relations were going through a stage of profound transformation, that new political and economic centres of influence were asserting themselves, and that a multipolar world order was also emerging. This process is unfolding during more pronounced challenges and threats to international security and the current system of interstate relations. The politicisation of global economic ties and the absence of significant progress in overhauling the existing international financial institutions, as well as global political and socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, are fraught with serious risks for sustainable global economic development.
Mr Norov noted that the pandemic highlighted the world's interdependence. "However, instead of solidarity and a joint struggle against the common threat, the world reverted from globalisation to isolation, and international solidarity gave way to each country's national interests," he said.
The SCO Secretary-General also drew attention to the fact that the states' unequal access to vaccines had allowed industrial countries to boost the pace of the jab campaign.
"However, the poorest countries and some of the developing countries lagging behind in terms of vaccination rates, due to vaccine shortages, may face the threat of mutation and new COVID strains. All this will negatively affect the efforts to contain the pandemic in the global and national contexts," he added.
"It is precisely solidarity, cohesion and a joint struggle that must become the driving force in countering this threat. In this context, international institutions and regional associations have an important role to play, while charting coordinated approaches towards containing the pandemic and overcoming the crisis," SCO Secretary-General said.
While discussing intra-SCO anti-COVID measures, Mr Norov noted that SCO member states adhered to the principles of the Shanghai Spirit, displayed a high level of solidarity, mutual support and cohesion, while expanding anti-COVID cooperation. "As a founder of our organisation, China now provides all-out vaccination assistance to SCO countries, and it has also given vaccines to 70 countries on a gratis basis," he added.
SCO countries advocate a multipolar world order based on generally recognised principles of the UN Charter and international law, multilateral concepts, the renunciation of confrontation and conflicts, as well as efforts to strengthen global and regional security.
The SCO Secretary-General noted that the Organisation, due to mark its 20th anniversary soon, is continuing to act as a reliable venue for strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness, ensuring and maintaining peace and stability in the region, expanding trade and economic cooperation and moving towards a new, democratic, equitable and rational international political and economic order.
Mr Norov said that the Belt and Road Initiative of PRC President Xi Jinping was a long-term multi-vector strategy stipulating joint development and prosperity, and that all states would benefit from this strategy. This initiative can change the world for the better and create new opportunities for strengthening cohesion and multilateral cooperation and for attaining Sustainable Development Goals.
"The SCO serves as an effective venue for combining the Belt and Road Initiative with national economic development strategies of SCO countries and the Eurasian Economic Union. The planned China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway can become a promising additional route that would link China with countries in the Middle East and Europe, and this would open up opportunities for landlocked Central Asian countries and allow them to access seaports," the SCO Secretary-General added.
Those attending the Forum's roundtables and panel discussions focused on the following six main themes: Understanding China, Keeping Pace with Global Change, Cooperation of the Belt and Road Initiative, In the Context of Industrial Transformation, New Technologies for All and Mutually Beneficial Development.
As in previous years, the Forum brought together influential researchers, specialists and political analysts, major public activists and entrepreneurs, politicians and government members from all over the world, as well as the heads of major international organisations.
The Forum became the first major 2021 international event mainly held offline. It involves over 2,600 representatives from over 60 countries and regions, as well as over 1,200 reporters representing 160 media outlets from 18 countries and regions. The Forum involves over 4,000 registered participants.
Instituted in 2001, the Boao Forum for Asia is an NGO and non-profit international organisation aiming to support regional economic integration and to assist Asian countries in attaining development goals. Over a period of the past few years, its other goal was to assist the entire world in this respect. The town of Boao on the eastern coast of Hainan Island is the venue for the Forum's annual conferences.