Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2025 opens in China's Hainan

China

Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2025 opens in China's Hainan

2025-03-25 13:00 Last Updated At：03-26 00:37

The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) 2025 Annual Conference opened in the town of Boao, south China's Hainan Province on Tuesday, with discussions revolving around four main topics including global trends, growth, outlooks and new drivers.

At the first press conference held on Tuesday morning, BFA Secretary General Zhang Jun said this year's event will focus on four subject areas: building trust and promoting cooperation in a fast-changing world; re-balancing globalization for inclusive development; accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals for more effective responses to global challenges; and strengthening AI application and governance for innovation-driven development.

With the theme "Asia in the changing World: Towards a shared Future", the four-day event has attracted nearly 2,000 attendees from more than 60 countries and regions to participate in more than 50 events and many bilateral events, according to the press conference.

"The theme of this year's conference is closely related to the major issues and challenges of our time, which will help us to better grasp the direction of progress in the changing situation. Through the conference, we hope to send a strong signal to the international community to maintain confidence, overcome difficulties, cooperate in solidarity and create a better future," Zhang said at the press conference.

Two annual reports titled "Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress" and "Addressing Climate Change: Asia Going Green" were also released at the press conference.

The "Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress" report pointed out that despite the increasing uncertainty of global economic growth, Asia will still be the main engine of the world economy; at the same time, Asia will continue to maintain its position at the core of the global value chain, and China will remain the center of the global manufacturing industry and global value chain.

In terms of green transformation and sustainable development, Asia has made remarkable progress in the field of new green technologies, and is expected to become a global leader in advanced battery materials, biodegradable plastics, tidal energy, green hydrogen and other fields, and play a leading role in promoting the global green transformation.

"The Asian economy, with its new potential and development space, has become an important force and cornerstone in stabilizing and supporting the world economy. The new generation of free trade agreements, represented by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEPA), is advancing steadily and releasing huge market dividends. The deepening of the digital economy and green economy is driving trade in services as a new highlight for regional economic integration in Asia," said Zhang.

Speaking at the press conference, Zhang Yuyan, director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, called for stronger confidence in Asia's future development.

"Analysis shows that Asia's annual economic growth will reach 4.5 percent in 2025. In addition to the growth, we will also see the rise of Asia's share in global economy from 48.1 percent last year to this year's 48.6 percent in purchasing power parity terms. So we have every reason to remain confident about Asia's growth and future," said Zhang.

The Boao Forum for Asia was founded in 2001 and offers a platform for dialogue between leaders from government, business, academia and other organizations to discuss economic, social and environmental issues, promote economic cooperation and support the sustainable development of Asia's economy.

S Africa expected to withstand shock from US tariffs as world's leading platinum producer

2025-04-29 17:32 Last Updated At：18:07

South African investment analysts and mining industry insiders are betting that the country's position as a leading producer of platinum group metals (PGMs), which are widely used in hydrogen, fuel cell and emissions reduction technologies, will offset the pain inflicted by U.S. tariffs targeting other South African exports.

As part of the Trump administration's tariff policy, all South African goods entering the U.S. are now subject to a 30-percent duty, with a specific 25-percent tariff imposed on vehicles and car parts. However, key mineral exports such as PGMs, coal, gold, manganese and chrome have been explicitly excluded from these new tariffs.

Platinum, together with other critical minerals like palladium and rhodium, is used to make auto catalysts for vehicle exhausts.

Robbie Proctor, an investment analyst with Anchor Capital in South Africa, observed that the United States may be able to source other critical minerals like palladium, but America does not have an alternative market for platinum other than South Africa.

"With the amount of recycled volumes of palladium that come into the market there, they actually could be almost self-sufficient in palladium. However, there is no chance of them being self-sufficient in platinum, regardless of how much investment goes in. Does the U.S. have an alternative market for platinum? The answer is a definite no," Proctor told China Global Television Network (CGTN) in an interview.

The exclusion of PGMs from the new U.S. tariff regime was widely anticipated by South Africa's mining industry, because without the commodity, America's automotive industry would not be able to manufacture catalytic converters and other component parts.

"The U.S. is a very big automotive sector. It's only second to China in terms of size and so, it's a big sector. And PGMs are a critical part of the catalytic converter exhaust management systems which are there to clean the air. And so, palladium and rhodium and obviously platinum are very important in those particular processes," said Roger Baxter, executive chairman of Southern Palladium, a key play in South Africa's exploration and development of PGMs.

South Africa's Sibanye Stillwater is one of the world's largest producers of PGMs and has operations in the U.S. The company sees opportunity in the turmoil.

"Having that footprint in the U.S. is for us strategically important, because I think a lot of this is about securing supply for the U.S. in terms of critical metals, self-generated, self-mined, self-developed," said Richard Stewart, chief regional officer of Africa at Sibanye Stillwater.

To Craig Miller, CEO of Anglo American Platinum, it is essential that South Africa's mining industry shift to the development of clean energy technologies going forward as the world quickly transitions away from internal combustion engines.

"We produce metals and we sell them globally, both to Europe, to China, to Japan, and to the U.S., but as a company, we are really focused around the future uses of PGMs as well, so actively looking at market development, and that market development is really in the form of new energy and in hydrogen," he said.

Others in the mining industry see a bright future for platinum jewelry, as the rare metal has become the metal of choice for South African jewelry designers due to its durability and resiliency, especially in the uncertain global trade environment.

"We've seen platinum ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) are similar to gold. But I think this is where there's an opportunity to do a lot more work on the demand side to increase the opportunities for investment and demand in platinum," said Mzila Mthenjane, CEO of Minerals Council South Africa.