Four dreams and a vision

Such sluggish progress on official-level cooperation has given the BFA and other unofficial platforms the opportunity to promote regional cooperation. The BFA's biggest advantage is its flexibility and low-binding force given the high political sensitivity in Asia.

The BFA started by promoting regional cooperation on low sensitivity issues and went on to explore unofficial cooperation platforms with lower-binding force by providing the region with multi-level communication channels for leaders in governments, businesses and the academia. The BFA has now started offering a reference template for official cooperation to promote regional integration through a two-track channel.

The third dream is to promote cooperation among emerging economies. Asia is now the most dynamic economic region and home to a number of emerging economies. Therefore, the processes of Asia's economic integration and emerging economies' cooperation have a lot in common.

In 2011, for example, the third BRICS summit and the BFA annual conference opened simultaneously in Boao, with China making elaborate arrangements to turn the BFA into an important platform for Asian and emerging economies to hold dialogue. Servicing the emerging economies has also become a new growth point for the BFA.

By providing a high-level platform for dialogue, promoting a win-win agenda and strengthening academic research, the BFA covers all issues that concern the emerging economies. As a forum, the BFA has done very well in "discussing ideological guidelines" concerning emerging economies.

It is hoped that the BFA will continue its innovative approach, put government support into full play and promote greater "pragmatic" cooperation among the emerging economies. The BFA, thus, could evolve into a platform for cooperation among the emerging economies.

The fourth dream is to promote global governance reform. This year's theme of "Asia Seeking Development for All: Restructuring, Responsibility and Cooperation" shows that the BFA is according priority to restructuring, which needs the cooperation of Asian countries.

The BFA, in fact, made restructuring the theme of the annual conference in 2012. Over the past few years, discussions on the international monetary system, reform of the global financial and trading systems, the responsibilities of G20 and global cooperation to tackle climate change and other issues have gradually become the highlight at the BFA.

This reflects not only the need for real reform of global economic governance, but also Asian nations' increasing concern over global issues because of the rise in Asia's overall strength and deepening interdependence with the outside world. This also reflects the BFA's broader vision and long-term goal.

Hopefully, the BFA can, as President Xi said in his keynote speech, lead to a new starting point, scale even greater heights and realize its dreams.

The author is a researcher at the World Politics Research Institute, affiliated to the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.