New elite Asian business club in the making
By Endy M. Bayuni
BOAO, Hainan, China (JP): A new exclusive Asian business club will be formally launched on Tuesday at this subtropical resort overlooking the South China Sea, with ringing endorsements from Chinese leaders, two former presidents and six former prime ministers.
The Boao Forum for Asia is being established along the lines of the World Economic Forum which holds its annual meeting at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, and will reportedly charge membership fees of $500,000 per person.
"The purpose of the forum is to have a platform where we can approach and discuss issues of importance to Asians and world development from the perspectives of Asia, and not from the perspectives of Europe or elsewhere," former foreign minister Ali Alatas, who heads the Indonesian delegation, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The Hainan provincial government has stopped at nothing to make this an outstandingly successful event in yet another sign of China's growing self-confidence in asserting its stake in international affairs this year, along with its current bid to host the 2008 Olympics, and its plan to host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum later this year.
The Chinese government has spent millions of dollars in virtually converting this onetime fishing hamlet, a 90-minute drive from the provincial capital of Haikkou, into a resort town that is being billed as the next Hawaii.
The Golden Coast hotel, where the event is being held, is a a showpiece in itself and demonstrates just how serious the Chinese government is in hosting the forum, as are the dozens of limousines used to transport delegates between Haikkou and Boao.
The forum will be formally inaugurated on Tuesday morning at a ceremony which will hear addresses from China's President Jiang Zemin, King Birendra of Nepal and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, who has been given the longest time to say his piece at the inauguration.
Also present to lend credibility to the forum are former heads of government/state, including Fidel Ramos (the Philippines), Sardar Muhammad Farooq Leghari (Pakistan), Bob Hawke (Australia), Sergy Terechshenko (Kazakhstan), Yashuhiro Nakasone (Japan), Kirti Nidhi Bistal (Nepal), Lee Song Sung (South Korea) and Izatullo Khaeev (Tajikistan).
In all, 26 countries have been invited to take part in Tuesday's inauguration in which the forum's vision, mission and strategy will be read out.
The forum organizers, however, appear to be divided about the precise definition of Asia.
Logo
The Boao Forum of Asia official logo defines the region as stretching from Papua New Guinea and Japan in the East to Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the West. But none of the Middle Eastern countries are taking part in Tuesday's inauguration, while the Central Asian countries are quite well represented. Conspicuously absent are representatives from Taiwan and Hong Kong, two regions that have plenty of the sort of business leaders and tycoons the forum hopes to attract. North Korea is also not represented at the forum.
Australia, although invited to take part, is not shown in the logo, something that Hawke said he would raise as delegates were finalizing the draft declaration and charter on Monday afternoon.
"I will humbly ask for Australia's inclusion," he told a media conference earlier in the morning.
On Australia's participation, the former prime minister had this to say: "Obviously, in terms of ethnicity, history and culture, we're not Asia. But in physical, geographical and economic terms, we're part of Asia. And I'm very proud of the fact that an increasing proportion of our population is Asian."
Besides Alatas, Indonesia's delegation includes former ambassador to China Abdurrahman Gunadirdja and current ambassador Kunarta.
"I strongly believe that we should not go beyond economic and social issues. The moment we to try to move into fields like political cooperation, we will run into the difficulties that too great a diversity imposes on us," Alatas said.
Hawke poured cold water on suggestions, mooted by some delegates and played up by the media, that the forum was a first step towards the economic integration of the region, and that it if had taken 60 years for Europe to integrate, then it should take only half as long for Asia.
"This is a mistaken premise," he said.
"We're not trying to bring about the integration of the economies of Asia in the sense of the creation of an equivalent of the European Union.
"Rather, we believe that Asia has become increasingly the center of gravity of the world economy. Existing international institutions have eurocentric organizations. The time has come when there should be a forum in Asia which brings together the leaders of government, business, academia and communities to talk together about issues of importance to Asia," Hawke said.
The forum on Monday elected Chen Jinhua, president of China's chamber of commerce, as Boao Forum of Asia chairman and appointed the three promoters -- Hawke, Ramos and Nakasone -- as co- chairmen. Tan Sri Dato Ajit Singh, a veteran Malaysian diplomat who has headed the Jakarta-based secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), was appointed as the forum's secretary general.