As originally announced last year, the largest gathering of Nobel laureates in Asia will be held in Beijing from May 30 to June 1, according to city and central government officials yesterday.

"This will be the first time that as many as eight Nobel laureates -- their work spanning various specialities in economics -- have been invited by an Asian country for an economic policy forum," said the capital's vice-mayor, Zhang Mao.

Among the group will be Edward Prescott, who won the prize last year, Robert A. Mundell, John F. Nash, Robert W. Fogel, Joseph E. Stiglitz, James A. Mirrlees, Vernon L. Smith and Clive W. J. Granger.

The Nobel Laureates Beijing Forum is sponsored by the State Council's Development Research Center (DRC) and Beijing's municipal government.

The laureates and five other eminent economists will meet officials, researchers and entrepreneurs, and the DRC will hold a special seminar with them on May 31.

Discussion topics include the Olympic economy, education and economic growth, as well as urban development.

Some of the laureates know the Chinese economy intimately; Mundell published Inflation and Growth in China in 1996, and Mirrlees has been a government adviser, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and honorary professor at Peking University.

"However, the forum will not discuss any China-specific issue," said Li Jiange, DRC vice-minister, "The forum, which has a global vision, will focus on long-term economic strategy."

(China Daily May 11, 2005)