The increasing importance of win-win partnerships can make Boao Forum for Asia a platform for emerging economies' cooperation

President Xi Jinping pronounced China's Asia policy during his talks with a number of world leaders at the Boao Forum for Asia in Boao, Hainan province, where he also delivered a keynote speech on Sunday.

From Xi's first state visit as head of state to Russia and participation in the BRICS summit to his address at the BFA, he has presented the new leadership's diplomatic philosophy to the whole world.

The BFA has developed into a comprehensive regional economic forum in recent years. It has not only become a high-level diplomatic platform for bilateral and multilateral exchanges with growing global influence, but also has been playing an active role in promoting public diplomacy and providing an important channel for enterprises looking for opportunities.

What has catapulted the BFA into the fast lane is its pursuit of four dreams.

The first is China's development and creation of a win-win atmosphere in Asia. In his speech at the BFA, Xi reiterated that China will continue to promote friendship and partnership, consolidate friendly relations and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with its neighbors. China will also ensure that its economic development brings more benefits to its neighbors.

A series of recent diplomatic discourse shows that promoting win-win cooperation will continue to be a priority for China's new leadership and that the BFA's pursuit is highly consistent with the central government's strategic objectives.

Almost every annual BFA conference has given priority to the relationship between China and other Asian countries. The BFA, as an unofficial comprehensive economic forum, is committed to promoting China's relationship with neighbors through diplomacy. In fact, sharing the fruits of China's development with Asian countries is very much a part of BFA's pursuit.

The second dream is the establishment of an Asian community. The BFA's goal is to build consensus among Asian countries and promote Asia's integration through unofficial channels.

The regional cooperation that countries in Asia are promoting is encountering many obstacles, with the regional institutionalization level lagging far behind the pace of the region's political and economic development. Cooperation among China, Japan and the Republic of Korea is floundering, and the "10+3" mechanism with ASEAN at the core has hit a bottleneck after years of rapid progress. Besides, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the latest ASEAN proposal for Asian regional integration, also faces uncertainties.

Such sluggish progress on official-level cooperation has given the BFA and other unofficial platforms the opportunity to promote regional cooperation. The BFA's biggest advantage is its flexibility and low-binding force given the high political sensitivity in Asia.

The BFA started by promoting regional cooperation on low sensitivity issues and went on to explore unofficial cooperation platforms with lower-binding force by providing the region with multi-level communication channels for leaders in governments, businesses and the academia. The BFA has now started offering a reference template for official cooperation to promote regional integration through a two-track channel.

The third dream is to promote cooperation among emerging economies. Asia is now the most dynamic economic region and home to a number of emerging economies. Therefore, the processes of Asia's economic integration and emerging economies' cooperation have a lot in common.

In 2011, for example, the third BRICS summit and the BFA annual conference opened simultaneously in Boao, with China making elaborate arrangements to turn the BFA into an important platform for Asian and emerging economies to hold dialogue. Servicing the emerging economies has also become a new growth point for the BFA.

By providing a high-level platform for dialogue, promoting a win-win agenda and strengthening academic research, the BFA covers all issues that concern the emerging economies. As a forum, the BFA has done very well in "discussing ideological guidelines" concerning emerging economies.

It is hoped that the BFA will continue its innovative approach, put government support into full play and promote greater "pragmatic" cooperation among the emerging economies. The BFA, thus, could evolve into a platform for cooperation among the emerging economies.

The fourth dream is to promote global governance reform. This year's theme of "Asia Seeking Development for All: Restructuring, Responsibility and Cooperation" shows that the BFA is according priority to restructuring, which needs the cooperation of Asian countries.

The BFA, in fact, made restructuring the theme of the annual conference in 2012. Over the past few years, discussions on the international monetary system, reform of the global financial and trading systems, the responsibilities of G20 and global cooperation to tackle climate change and other issues have gradually become the highlight at the BFA.

This reflects not only the need for real reform of global economic governance, but also Asian nations' increasing concern over global issues because of the rise in Asia's overall strength and deepening interdependence with the outside world. This also reflects the BFA's broader vision and long-term goal.

Hopefully, the BFA can, as President Xi said in his keynote speech, lead to a new starting point, scale even greater heights and realize its dreams.

The author is a researcher at the World Politics Research Institute, affiliated to the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.