BEIJING, April 24 -- More than 300 internationally renowned scholars and officials have confirmed they will attend the Shanghai Forum 2007, to be held from May 25-27 at Fudan University.

Under the general theme of "Economic Globalization and the Choice of Asia", the forum will feature five separate sections covering: the shaping mechanism for the yuan's exchange rate; monetary and financial cooperation in East Asia; global warming and energy consumption; the Asian economic development model; and economic integration and the rise of China and India.

Wang Shenghong, president of Fudan University, said that at the forum's closing ceremony, scholars and officials would present drafts of their shared beliefs in the form of the "Shanghai Forum Consensus". He said that all keynote speeches and final reports on discussions would also be compiled into a book to be published by the university.

David Brady, deputy director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said the topic that most interested him was how China would proceed with its economic reform to achieve a productive market economy.

He said he was looking forward to exchanging views on the country's economic development and cooperation between Asian countries with Chinese scholars and officials at the forum.

Yuan Zhigang, president of the College of Economics at Fudan University, said the Hoover Institution was one of the forum's most important partners around the world.

Katsuhiko Shirai, president of the Waseda University of Japan and another distinguished forum participant, said: "I look forward to the active discussions and exchanges of information and ideas among all the participants from business, academia and government in regard to global issues.

"I hope to discuss concrete approaches and solutions toward issues such as hunger, war, religious and ethnic conflicts, environmental degradation and decline in energy resources. I believe that collaboration among industry, academics and governments is essential to tackle these global issues," he said.

Vishakha N Desai, president of the Asia Society, a global educational organization based in the United States and dedicated to deepening connections among the peoples of Asia and the US, said: "While economically Asia is becoming increasingly linked, considerable distances need to be bridged in the political and cultural realms.

"We need to focus on specific actions that could be taken after the forum concludes to continue to build networks of individuals in the Asia Pacific community that are capable of meeting the demands of the interconnected nature of the world in the 21st century."

The forum's organizing committee said it had invited a "constellation" of outstanding figures from academia, government and commercial circles in order to forge a communication platform at the very highest level.

Han Zheng, the mayor of Shanghai will also attend the forum and deliver the keynote speech.

(Source: China Daily)