At the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) will host the BFA Ulaanbaatar Conference for the first time from August 19 to 21.

The Ulaanbaatar Conference will be held around the theme of “Concerted Action for Common Development in the New Era”; this is the overarching theme of the BFA’s overseas conferences. Ban Ki-moon, Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and former Secretary-General of the United Nations, will deliver the keynote speech at the event.

After the BFA called for maintaining multilateralism and free trade at its Annual Conference, it will venture into, at the request of the Mongolian government, the hinterland of Asia to build a new open and inclusive platform for win-win cooperation, helping Mongolia develop its economy by leveraging its resources. Together with Mongolia, the BFA is committed to promoting free trade and multilateral cooperation for common development and prosperity. This memorable year will also see the opening of the BFA Ulaanbaatar Conference in honour of China-Mongolia friendship. Capturing this significant historic opportunity of the 70th anniversary of China-Mongolia diplomatic ties, the conference will carry out the important consensus reached by the two leaders to build a platform for optimizing the bilateral trade structure, tapping the potential of investment and cooperation, and promoting pragmatic cooperation between the two countries. In the new era, the BFA desires to help align Mongolia’s “Development Road” with the “Belt and Road” to promote more tangible results from the tripartite economic corridor, hence contributing to regional connectivity and cooperation.

The interactive parallel sessions will discuss topics such as “New direction: Aligning with the ‘Belt and Road’ & ‘Development Road’”, “Connectivity: Expanding horizons into regional cooperation”, and the “Common goal: Green development”. The vision of this conference is to build consensus and provide intellectual support for Mongolia to better align its development strategy with regional initiatives, and ensure the stable and sustainable cooperation along the “Belt and Road” routes to benefit local and regional people.

Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, D.Tsogtbaatar, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, Li Baodong, Secretary-General of the BFA, Xing Haiming, Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of the UN ESCAP, B.Bayanjargal, Chairman, of The Business Council of Mongolia, and Meng Xiaosu, Vice-President, China International Council for the Promotion of Multinational Corporations, will attend and address the conference. Sessions such as “Business Opportunities: Investment Climate in Mongolia”, “Business Leaders Dialogue Face-to-Face”, and “Mongolian Enterprises Visits” will bring together leading enterprises from China and Mongolia and tap cooperation potentials.