Beijing will be next year's venue for Fortune Global Forum. Its theme will be China and the New Asian Century, highlighting the economic and business weight Asia holds for rest of the world. The announcement was made at a press conference Wednesday afternoon in the Chinese capital by the world's leading business magazine Fortune.
 
The TimeWarner Group has announced in Beijing that the ninth Fortune Global Forum will be held in the Chinese capital in the next May.

Fortune's international chief editor Robert Friedman says the current century will be the Asian century, and China is playing a great role in international affairs, and in addition, fortune is highly valued in China. That's the reason why the forum will come back to China.

Vice minister of the State Council Information Office Qian Xiaoqian and vice mayor of Beijing, Zhang Mao say Beijing has very good infrastructure, such as communications, hotels, traffic, as well as its rich experiences in holding international forums and conferences. So they are confident the fortune forum in next May will be a success.

It will be the third time for the Fortune Global Forum to choose China. The first two were respectively held in Shanghai in 1999 and in Hong Kong in 2001.

(CRI May 13, 2004)