Dalian gears up for 2019 Summer Davos Forum

Northern pearl Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning province is gearing up for the 2019 World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions, or Summer Davos Forum, from July 1 to 3, officials said in Beijing Tuesday.

Dalian will hold a green, secure and innovative Annual Meeting of the New Champions, equipped with 5G technology, cloud computing, facial recognition and virtual reality, said Jin Guowei, vice-mayor of the Dalian municipal government, at a news conference.

Themed as Leadership 4.0: Succeeding in a New Era of Globalization, this year's Summer Davos Forum will be more open and cooperative, attracting about 2,000 international participants from more than 100 countries and regions. The percentage of international participants will reach as high as 70 percent, a historical record compared to all past annual meetings, Jin said.

Noticeably, the number of US representatives ranked second, following host country China, and about 300 representatives from the US will participate in the event amid China-US trade frictions, Jin added.

Li Bin, counsel for the department of international cooperation at the National Development and Reform Commission, said economic globalization is an irreversible trend and China will continue to firmly support globalization and join hands with stakeholders to safeguard world economic openness and inclusion.

China will also comprehensively strengthen its international cooperation in technological innovation and grasp new opportunities for a technological revolution to promote its quality economic growth, Li said.

"At this Annual Meeting of the New Champions, we hope that through the sharing and exchanging of views, participants from diverse communities will learn how to succeed in a new era of globalization, thus providing strong momentum for China's quality economic growth and global well-being," said Li.

David Aikman, chief representative officer of the World Economic Forum Greater China, said people should look beyond the headlines and focus on cooperation and collaboration behind the scenes.

There is tremendous cooperation taking place between China and the world, including the United States, and one of the examples is a series to bring the mayors of the world together to look at sustainable and smart cities, he noted. What can people learn from China's experience of pilot cities and smart cities? How do we leverage 5G in the internet of things to make our cities more sustainable and better for living? This is just one example of the ways in which behind the scenes people are collaborating and working together, Aikman added.

As many international participants would like to open the channel for economic and trade cooperation with China at the annual meeting, the organizer has for the first time arranged a special department to provide long-term, professional and individual services to member enterprises of the forum, according to Jin.

An enterprise exchange meeting will also be held in the evening of July 2 for business representatives from State-owned companies, foreign enterprises, local companies and private companies to communicate for business cooperation, Jin added.

Dalian held the first Summer Davos Forum in September 2007 and this is the seventh time for Dalian to hold this forum, rotating with Tianjin.