Secretary-General Dr Supachai
Ambassador Stapleton ROY
Distinguished speakers and delegates
Board members of Business China
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning 大家早上好！
1. On behalf of the organizer, Business China, it gives me great pleasure to welcome all our distinguished speakers, guests, delegates and partners here at the 2nd FutureChina Global Forum. I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to all the local and foreign media covering the event.
2. Last July, more than 300 speakers and delegates from around the world gathered here for the inaugural FutureChina Global Forum. We are happy to have received commendations from last year’s delegates. Many told us the forum was unique, going beyond the usual discussions on China’s economy evolution, giving them an integrated picture of the realities of the fast changing China. This has motivated us to organize this international meeting for a second year as we always strive to be the leading bilingual and bi-cultural channel for closer collaboration with China. It also complements our vision to strengthen the ties between Singapore and China and expand Singapore’s global connectivity.
3. This forum was a continuation to build a community of insiders interested in China and create privileged China networking opportunities in Singapore. We are pleased that some of you are attending for the second time, thank you for your strong support. In return we have gathered more renowned international speakers to share their fresh insights on China to ensure your time with us will be well spent. We are keeping the size of delegates small at 350 again to maximize interaction and cross fertilization of thoughts.
4. This year’s theme “China in the Next Phase: Marching to a New Drumbeat”, “奏响新旋律 迈进新阶段”is set against the backdrop which China has just embarked its 12th Five-Year-Plan this May, and expecting a generational leadership change next year. In additional, China has overtaken Japan to become world’s second largest economy in February this year. However after 3 decades of nearly 10% average annual growth, China’s economy is expected to slow down in the next few years. Hence, how will China cope with the change and how will it affect us?
You might find some answers to these questions in the 20 specially designed plenary and concurrent sessions. The sessions are anchored by the 5 main pillars respectively; they are Politics and Society, Business and Economy, Global Relations, Science and Technology and lastly Arts and Culture. The forum is one of the few which provide an integrated approach to understand the emerging China. After these sessions, I am confident you will have a deeper knowledge about the new trends and forces shaping China’s evolution, and how these factors interact with each other.
5. Amongst the many distinguished speakers, it is our privilege to have Singapore Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Manpower, Mr S Tharman as the keynote speaker for the plenary luncheon today. While for this evening‘s Dinner Dialogue, the patron of Business China and Former Singapore Minister Mentor, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr John Thornton, Board Chairman of The Brookings Institution in USA to share with us their thoughts and wisdom. To bring the Forum to a grand closure tomorrow, we have Ambassador Stapleton Roy, former US Ambassador to Singapore, China and Indonesia speaking at the Closing Plenary Luncheon. Born in Nanjing, China, Ambassador Roy is a fluent Chinese speaker. Before his retirement, he used to be a senior US diplomat specializing in Asian affairs and has spent much of his career in East Asia. We definitely look forward to his insights on the future challenges and opportunities for US-China relations.
6. At the end of forum, I hope you will take home a more holistic picture of the fast evolving new China, and in additional establishing invaluable network with experts and important decision makers around the world.
7. Last but not least, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the speakers who have travelled a long distance to be here, we thank you for your support to the Forum. We hope you have an enjoyable stay here.
Also, we thank all our sponsors, supporting organizations, partners and speakers, without your generous support and commitment, FutureChina Global Forum would not have taken place.
I wish all of you have a good harvest and a fruitful experience.
Thank you 谢谢!