Visions for the Future: Forum releases three reports on Asia's economy

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The Boao Forum for Asia kicked off on Sunday in China's southern-most province of Hainan. The forum has released three reports on Asia's economy. Our reporter Zou Yun sheds more light on how the region performed in the past year.

Despite a strong performance in terms of trade last year across Asia, the outlook for future economic integration still needs further development and cautious optimism.

The latest reports released at the Boao Forum point out that Asia's most important driver of economic integration -- which is globalization -- now faces a range of unprecedented challenges.

And in order to address these obstacles, the reports have called for joint efforts to speed up talks on "RCEP" - the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

LIN GUIJUN, CHAIR OF ACADEMIC COMMITTEE UNIVERSITY OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & ECONOMICS "We have to resort to high quality and determined measures to conclude the negotiation of RCEP. And we have seen progress being made, such as China, Japan and the ROK restarting their trade talks. This is what we can do at the moment, to counter the tide of anti-globalization, and propel economic growth in Asia."

Overall competitiveness throughout Asia grew in 2017, Singapore topped the list, while China was the 9th highest among economies surveyed. But it's not only economic integration that has provided benefit to Asian economies. The China-initiated "Belt & Road Initiative", has contributed to infrastructure development, trade cooperation, and other sectors across the continent.

LIU XIANGDONG, ASSOCIATE RESEARCHER CHINA CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC EXCHANGES "For instance, many countries in South Asia are still not showing a strong level of competitiveness, due to their lack of innovation and infrastructure development. But the Belt and Road Initiative is improving their situation by building economic corridors and projects."

Finally, economic growth of the world's 11 largest economies including Brazil, China and India, have witnessed accelerated growth across the board. They're also benefiting from a drastic rise in external demand, while witnessing stable domestic demand and consumption. ZOU YUN CGTN, BOAO.