The BFA Annual Conference that President Mahinda Rajapaksa will address later today has since its inauguration in 2001 become the pre-eminent international economic forum in Asia. The theme for the Conference this year is the Challenge of Climate Change and the emergence of a Green Asia.

The Boao Conference will discuss the challenges and opportunities influencing the Asian region’s environmental future, focusing on the search energy efficiency, the need to secure Asia’s future through renewable energy sources, and how the private sector can contribute to improving the environment.

This BFA Conference has added significance as China marks the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the Reform and Opening Up Policy by former Chairman Deng Xiao Ping that set the country on the course to its current economic success.

Among the other national leaders participating in this BFA Conference are the Prime Ministers of Australia, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Presidents of Chile, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tanzania and the King of Tonga.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his address to the BFA Conference will state the Sri Lankan perspective on the need for an Asian consensus on meeting the challenge of Climate Change and the issue of sustainable economic growth.

Among the topics to be discussed at the special sessions of the BFA are Asian Enterprise and Competition in the Global Marketplace, Building amore open Multilateral Trading System, Sub-prime Crisis and its impact non the world economy, the Future of the Internet and Green Asia – A shift in responsibility from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Responsible Investing (SRI). Among the moderators of the sessions is Nick Gowing of BBC, Thomas Easton, Asian Business Editor of The Economist and Rajendra K Pachauri, Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the Nobel Peace Laureate 2007.