THE Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2025 was held on March 25, 2025 under the theme of “Building Trust in the Shifting Global Landscape” during which more than 1,500 representatives from more than 60 countries and regions attended the opening ceremony.
It has great socio-economic, geopolitical and geostrategic emerging scenarios the BFA has become an antidote to unilateralism and holistic and comprehensive roadmap for the ongoing trade war and the sluggish global economic recovery.
Thus it has its own choices and solutions conveying the mes-sage of economic globalization, international cooperation and, notably, multiculturalism instead of obsessive unilateralism, sanctions and thundering tariffs disturbing the international economy and trading system.
Evidently, at present, the world economy is facing a severe challenge.
The trade protectionist policies and populist tendencies of some countries continue to fragment the global industrial chain.
Despite the complexity and volatility of the external environment, Asia’s economy is still showing strong resilience.
It is a good omen that the Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress Annual Report 2025 released by the BFA projects that the weighted real GDP growth rate of Asia is estimated to reach 4.5 percent in 2025 and at purchasing power parity, the ratio of Asia’s GDP among the global total is expected to rise to 48.6 percent in 2025.
Additionally, Asian economies, such as China, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Cambodia and Indonesia, will continue to maintain a high growth rate of over 5 percent.
Asia has, in fact, become the core engine of global growth and a well-deserved stabilizing anchor for the world economy which vividly reflects its strength and diversity.
Remarkably, openness, transparency, modernization and global shared prosperity have been the driving force for Asia’s socio-economic integration and prosperity.
Definitely, China’s “new three” drivers i.e. new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products are shipping to Laos, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries by the Lancang-Mekong Express service on the China-Laos Railway, while China’s domestically built large cruise ship Adora Magic City is carrying tourists from China, Japan and South Korea to cities including Shanghai, Fukuoka and Jeju.
Furthermore, jointly built AI innovation cooperation centres signed by China and Laos to the Pakistani astronauts who will enter the Chinese space station in the future, these all demonstrate that countries reinforce each other in cooperation and move toward a more promising future.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the GDP of the members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will grow by US$10.9 trillion from 2023 to 2029, and Asian countries embracing openness are the first to enjoy the dividends of development.
Asia’s developmental resilience is also rooted in the innovation of development models.
Currently, Asia’s R&D investment intensity and patent applications far exceed those of the rest of the world, and it is increasingly becoming a main character in science and technology innovation globally.
Moreover, Asia has demonstrated strong development potential in the areas of digital economy and green economy.
With the wide application of technologies, such as 5G, AI and big data, the construction of digital infrastructure in Asia is advancing rap-idly, providing strong support for economic transformation and upgrading.
Asia is already at the forefront of a new round of industrial revolution.
It seems that BFA 2025 has selected more relevant and forward-looking topics, reflecting the vibrant development potential of a “diverse Asia” and amplifying the voice of the Global South reflecting BFA’s redefinition of multilateralism.
Thus it successfully negated false propaganda of mere talk shops and projected a “task force” focused on ad-dressing regional and global challenges.
Critical analysis reveals that the BFA’s influence has spread all around the world, attracting scholars and entrepreneurs from many countries across the world, including the US, Norway and Italy, to actively participate and discuss development.
Evolving from the “Asian Davos” to a “global public good,” the forum not only provides a platform for Asian countries to jointly discuss development but also integrates Chinese and Asian wisdom into the global governance dialogue.
It seems that Asian countries have joined hands at the BFA to make their voices heard promoting development as a means to resolve conflicts, empowering cooperation through rules and fostering consensus through cultural connections.
Thus Asia is a leading voice for multilateralism, free trade and globalization.
In summary, it is feared that “Asian Miracle” will face tough time from the Trumponomics blocking free, fair and just international trade and its unilateral sanctions on CHIP, investment, technology and imposition of thundering tariffs drastically decreasing economic globalization and international cooperation which urgently needs readjustments, rectifications and revisions in their prevailing policies.
It augurs well that despite ongoing trade war and numerous new tariffs the Chinese government has been emphasizing on the need of constructive competition and cooperation achieving win-win cooperation for all.
Keeping in the rap-idly changes global landscape trade dominated by the US inconsistent economic, trade, monetary & fiscal policies along with its obsessive land grabbing geopolitical drive and ports the Asia countries should further strengthen their cooperation in free trade, e-commerce, digitalization, artificial intelligence, mutually beneficial investments, R & D, qualitative industrialization, green technologies and hybrid agriculture mitigating the spillover repercussions.
The author fully endorses the Chinese vision of greater regional socio-economic integration consisting of free trade, qualitative industrial cooperation, innovation driven development, shared prosperity and increasing green technology cooperation for replacing zero-sum game and self-ceteredness for a collective development gearing all regional countries towards sustainable economic development and qualitative life.
The writer suggests that there should joint consensus on cooperation in green technologies, inclusive development through extended cooperation in digitalization, artificial intelligence, robotic technologies, quantum technologies, e-commerce, hybrid agriculture, community development, joint efforts for controlling climate change threats, disaster management, qualitative industrialization and last but not least transregional connectivity for achieving the common goals of stable and sustainable economic growth and manufacturing targets during 2025 and beyond.
—The writer is President, Pak-China Corridor of Knowledge, Executive Director, CSAIS, regional expert: China, CPEC & BRI.(mehmoodulhassankhan@yahoo.com)
