The Ninth Fortune Global Forum opened in Beijing on May 16. This is the third time that the forum is being held in China after it was held in Shanghai in 1999 and Hong Kong in 2001. The forum will bring world's best-known CEOs and senior executives back to China, this time to Beijing, which has aroused great attention from various circles of the society. Is there any special consideration for the Fortune Global Forum to choose China as its holding site for the third time?  

Global economic circles pay close attention to China

China has been the important commercial center of development in the world in the latest few years and will continue acting this important role in the future, said Jaime Florcruz, chief representative of the Fortune Global Forum office in Beijing. As a commercial magazine, Fortune discusses an economy-related topic every two weeks and will hold a comparatively bigger commercial conference every several months. These commercial conferences are the continuity and supplement of the Fortune magazine.

He said different from other commercial meetings, Fortune Global Forum will be held in a different place for every 16-18 months. Fortune is interested in the most important commercial stories of the world, therefore the conference site is sure to be held at the most important commercial center of the world for each period and it will be the place where the global economical circles pay most attention to. "We think a lot of world's most important commercial stories have taken place in China now, therefore we choose Beijing to hold the conference," he said. Another reason is that Beijing will host the 2008 Olympic Games, which will bring very great business opportunities to all companies.

Following Shanghai Fortune Global Forum in 1999, Fortune designated International SOS as the medical service organization for Beijing Fortune Global Forum again, providing three services involving medication and first-aid rescues. The vigorous and sustainable development of China's economy is the most important reason that Fortune has chosen China to hold its conferences for three times, said Zhang Yi, managing director of the International SOS China.

China's attraction grows with each passing day

Robert Bierman, president of Conference Division of Fortune Magazine made comparison between this conference and the Shanghai forum held six years ago. He said it is the scale at first. The forum is the biggest one ever held in its history. We have attracted entrepreneurs and political VIPs from 44 countries to participate in the forum. In all our forums, the number of Chinese participants ranks top for the first time. In almost all the meetings, there will be a voice from China.

He believes that the bigger difference is the focus that we pay close attention to. In 1999, many foreign corporations just entered China, began to understand China and became interested in the Chinese market. What they saw was the potentiality of China, what the chances China might bring to the foreign corporations and how to stay in China. It is different this time because great changes have taken place after six years. The leaders of these enterprises need discuss such a question more deeply -- Why does the Chinese market develop so fast? What do the local government and native commercial institutions have made for the market? It is a very interesting topic for the whole world.

Just as what top leaders with Fortune Chinese edition says it is a simple reason for the Fortune Global Forum to have an optimistic view on China. Under the relatively weak situation of the current international economy only China's economy has gone through more than 20 years of high-speed development with still powerful growth momentum. There are limitless business opportunities in China and the most attractive market in Asia is in China.

World trusts China increasingly

The theme of Shanghai Fortune Global Forum in 1999 was "The coming 50 years for China," the theme of Hong Kong Fortune Global Forum in 2001 was "New look of Asia," and the theme of the Beijing forum "China and the new Asian century." The themes of the three forums have reflected that China's economy is integrated with Asian economy or even the international economy.

Zhao Qizheng, minister of the State Council Information Office, thinks on one hand it shows China's economy has become an important driving force for the development of Asian economy or even the economy of the world and there appears a win-win situation for China and its neighboring countries in Asia; on the other hand it proves the world has increased its China credibility by a wide margin.

Experts deem the Fortune Global Forum offers a good opportunity for China to know the world and for the world to know China. We can avail of this opportunity to understand the development experience, strategies and plans of transnational corporations in order to go after profits and avoid disadvantages as well as to obtain a chance for foreign presentation, showing and explaining China to the world.

The Chinese government pays close attention to the Fortune Global Forum. The opening ceremony of the 2005 Fortune Global Forum was held Monday night at the Great Hall of the People instead of the Temple of Heaven. Two full-day roundtable conferences on sports and culture were also held on May 16.

Brief introduction to Fortune Global Forum

Organized by the US-based Fortune magazine under the US Time Warner Group, the magazine has selected an attractive "hot place" to hold the conference once a year. It invites the chairmen, presidents and CEOs of global transnational corporations as well as world-famous politicians and scholars to participate in the conference and probes jointly into the problems that the global business circles face.

Coming into being in 1930, the biweekly Fortune magazine began to appraise and select the top 500 US enterprises with the largest operational revenue in the country since 1955. Since 1990, it began to publish a ranking of the top 500 industrial enterprises worldwide and it expanded the top 500 ranking to the service industry since 1994. The ranking of the previous year is published in every August. The ranking is based mainly on operational revenues. Factors taken into consideration also include assets, net income, sales volume, the number of employees, investment and dividend The ranking is considered to be the barometer for weighing the authoritative data on the economic conditions of industrial and commercial enterprises and the economic strength of various countries.

(People's Daily May 18, 2005)