By staff reporter ZHOU LIN

ON Nov. 22, 120 attendees from 18 countries and regions gathered for the commencement of the Global Think Tanks Forum 2018 in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in Southwest China. The theme of this year’s forum is "Cooperation and Development of Think Tanks and Innovation in Global Governance." The attendees included executives of think tanks, Chinese and foreign experts, scholars, and media representatives, all of whom have come together to hold two days of discussions focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative, think tank cooperation, and China’s reform and opening-up.

 The opening ceremony of the Global Think Tanks Forum 2018. Photos by Dong Ning

Bruce Pickering, senior advisor of Asia Society in the U.S., indicated that the most impressive thing China has accomplished over the past 40 years was lifting more than 700 million people out of poverty. He noted how it took the U.S. 200 hundred years to accomplish what China has accomplished in only 40 years. This is such a remarkable achievement, he noted.

Bruce Pickering, senior advisor of Asia Society in the U.S.

John Ross, a British economic commentator and senior fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, said, “What China has created in few words: it’s the greatest economic miracle in the whole of human history.” He went to say, “When China started to grow in 1978, this was 22 percent of the world’s population. It has had the fastest growth of living standards of any country in human history and is responsible for the elimination of 75 percent of the world’s population that lived in poverty.” In addition, he also emphasized the important role of think tanks to provide professional information and analysis-based suggestions for governments to help them avoid making misjudgments or wrong calculations.

John Ross, senior fellow of Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

Srikanth Kondapalli, chairman and professor of the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, said that over the past 40 years, China has made an impressive headway in many aspects such as agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense.

 Srikanth Kondapalli, chairman and professor of the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India.

Ronnie Lins, president of the Center China-Brazil: Research and Business, agreed that China is now very important in the world’s development, because China has established more relationships with the world and also shared its ideas and economic achievements with other countries. The Belt and Road Initiative is such an example.

 Ronnie Lins, president of the Center China-Brazil: Research and Business.

Dmitry Baryshnikov, vice dean of the School of International Relations at Saint-Petersburg State University in Russia, proposed the idea to establish joint think tanks, which would act autonomously, on a mixed financial basis when involving international experts of needed specializations. 

Dmitry Baryshnikov, vice dean of the School of International Relations at Saint-Petersburg State University in Russia.

The forum is organized by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies as well as the Information Office of Chengdu Municipal People's Government under the auspices of China International Publishing Group (CIPG) and Chengdu Municipal People's Government.