The Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2026 will be held in Boao, Hainan from March 24th to 27th, with the theme of "Shaping a Common Future: New Situations, New Opportunities, and New Cooperation". This year marks the beginning of the 15th Five Year Plan and the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Boao Forum for Asia. What will be the highlights of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2026, which is the first annual conference held after the closure of Hainan Free Trade Port throughout the island? What signals are released? On December 18, 2025, a foreign ship loaded with petrochemical raw materials docked at the 300000 ton crude oil berth of Guotou Yangpu Oil Storage Terminal located in Danzhou City, Hainan Province (drone photo). On that day, Hainan Free Trade Port officially launched the island wide lockdown. Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Cheng's photo highlights: What opportunities will a more open China bring? As an important window for China's opening up to the outside world, the Boao Forum for Asia 2026 Annual Conference has set up multiple events such as "China's Economic Outlook: Focusing on High Quality Development" and "Investing in China, Sharing the Future". These events will interpret the policy orientation, new quality productivity, consumption recovery, and institutional opening-up at the beginning of the 15th Five Year Plan period, showcase the advantages of Hainan Free Trade Port's institutional innovation, cross-border services, and free flow of factors, and release investment opportunities in cross-border trade, financial openness, digital services, green industries, and other fields, providing a stable and predictable cooperation window for global capital. Mu Hong, Vice Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, believes that in the face of international changes and various risks and challenges, the Chinese economy has shown strong resilience and vitality, with growth rates continuing to rank among the top of major economies and contributing around 30% to world economic growth; Especially with the emergence of new quality productivity through technological innovation, it is being transformed into new economic momentum. Zhang Jun, Secretary General of the Boao Forum for Asia, stated that with the implementation of the 15th Five Year Plan, China has made a series of new deployments around expanding high-level opening up to the outside world, and the high standard construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port is one of them. This annual conference will provide important opportunities for friends from all walks of life to invest in China and share development opportunities. Highlight 2: How to strengthen regional cooperation and promote global governance? Currently, geopolitical conflicts are frequent, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, causing serious impacts on the global economy. How to maintain regional prosperity and stability and promote global economic governance in the increasingly turbulent international situation? This year's annual meeting has intensively set up related topics. From "strengthening regional organization cooperation and forming policy coordination synergy" to "strengthening regional linkage and maintaining financial security and stability", from "RCEP: how to unleash greater potential" to "revitalizing APEC: towards the vision of an Asia Pacific community", multiple sub forums will explore how regional organizations can promote open regional cooperation and integration processes, striving to build a more fair, inclusive, and efficient global economic governance system. In the view of Fan Gang, an economics professor at Peking University, despite the rampant tariff and trade wars, most countries still choose to abide by the rules, respect the multilateral trading system centered on the WTO, and strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation. Forum member and former Slovenian President Turk believes that in the context of uncertainty becoming the "new normal" and geopolitical shocks impacting economic resilience, it is necessary to strengthen international cooperation and form policy synergy. In addition, sub forums such as "World Economic Transformation: Asia's Leading Role" will focus on Asia's role in global economic governance. South Korean Ambassador to China, Roh Jae hun, said that the key to sustained growth in Asia lies in adhering to open development and deepening connectivity. In the future, we should continue to strengthen policy coordination and deepen regional cooperation, injecting more certainty into the world economy. Highlight 3: How to create a new form of intelligent economy? On the internet, AI short dramas are flourishing; On stage, robots dance gracefully... Currently, emerging technologies represented by artificial intelligence are accelerating their entry into ordinary people's homes. This year's government work report, for the first time, proposed "creating a new form of intelligent economy", which has attracted attention from all walks of life. How to further promote the implementation and development of intelligent economy? How can "AI+" empower industrial upgrading? Multiple sub forums of this year's conference will discuss this topic. Topics such as "AI+: Empowering Industrial Upgrading with Digital Intelligence" and "Entering the AI Era: Seizing Opportunities to Create the Future" focus on how to build an efficient collaborative innovation mechanism between industry, academia, and research, and how to achieve a technological leap from "using AI" to "possessing AI capabilities" in the era of big models. Many companies will share their practical experience with the latest products on the forum. On the other hand, with the rapid iterative development of artificial intelligence, ethical controversies, technological risks, and other related issues have become increasingly prominent. Topics such as "The Advancement and Leap of Humanoid Robots" and "High end Dialogue - Investing in the Future: Are You Ready?" will delve into cutting-edge topics such as safety regulation of technologies such as artificial intelligence and the boundaries of future human-machine relationships. The attendees believe that Asia has outstanding comparative advantages in the digital economy industry chain and is accelerating its transformation from a "world factory" to a global innovation center. The Boao Forum for Asia actively promotes international dialogue and cooperation in scientific and technological innovation, creating an open, inclusive, fair, and non discriminatory ecosystem and environment for global scientific and technological innovation, "said Zhang Jun. Highlight 4: How can green concepts empower high-quality development? Entering the Boao Zero Carbon Demonstration Zone, photovoltaic panels and tiles installed in some areas continuously generate clean energy; Next to the news center, a giant vanadium flow energy storage battery provides a stable "foundation" for the "light storage straight flexible" system... One of the highlights of this year's conference is to adhere to the concept of green and smart hosting. The full coverage of new energy transportation, green conference services, and low-carbon accommodation, as well as the implementation of low-carbon operation in core areas, are vivid footnotes to the concept of sustainable development. How to ensure the timely achievement of the relevant goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the context of the worsening global climate and environmental crisis? At this year's annual conference, forums such as "Accelerating Green Transformation: Pathways and Actions," "Asian New Energy Cooperation," "Challenges and Prospects of Global Climate Governance," and "Green Economy: New Momentum and Trends in the Development of Tropical Fruit Industry" will be held in rotation, extending green issues from energy and finance to the real economy and people's livelihoods, and promoting the implementation of climate governance consensus. The world is currently undergoing a profound period of change and transformation, which has far-reaching and interactive impacts on Asia's implementation of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in multiple fields. ”Zhang Jun stated that adhering to open regionalism and jointly exploring new sustainable development paths under the background of global changes is a common issue faced by Asian countries. (New Society)