The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual meeting 2006 opened Saturday morning. Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech.

Fidel Ramos, chairman of the BFA Board of Directors and former Philippine president, made a welcome speech at the opening ceremony, which is held at the International Conference Center in Boao, a coastal scenic town in China's southernmost island province of Hainan.

More than 850 senior politicians, scholars and business people from about 40 countries and regions are here for the annual conference with the theme Asia Searching for Win-win: New Opportunities of Asia: Driving Growth to the Next Level.

The participants will discuss such major topics as regional economic cooperation, the prospects of the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks, energy market, as well as China's banking, real estate and automotive industries and reform of state-owned enterprises.

Since the regional forum was established in 2001, the BFA has attracted a great number of high-level officials, businessmen and scholars from around the world to discuss regional and global economic and political issues.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2006)