BFA Secretary General Li Baodong at the 2021 BFA in Boao, South China's Hainan Province on Sunday Photo: Chi Jingyi/GT

An annual report from Boao Forum of Asia (BFA) shows the performance of Asian economies, led by China, has performed significantly better than that of the rest of the world in the past months, predicting Asian economy will experience continuous growth of more than 6.5 percent in 2021.

Under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Asian economies have experienced a sharp drop in growth rates, however, Asian economic performance as a whole has been significantly better than that of the rest of the world, said the report.

In terms of purchasing power parity, Asia's share in the global economic aggregate in 2020 reached 47.3 percent, up 0.9 percentage points from 2019. 

As Asia's largest economy, China led Asia with an impressive GDP growth rate of 2.3 percent last year.

In the first quarter of 2021, China's economy grew by 18.3 percent year-on-year.

The report also shows that economic integration of all Asian economies is accelerating. By February 2021, there had been 186 regional trade agreements in force inside and outside Asia, accounting for 54.9 percent of the total regional agreements in the world.

In particular, the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) in November 2020 has been injecting strong momentum into regional and global economic growth, which is expected to give renewed impetus to further accelerate the negotiation of free trade agreements in Asia. 

The integration of the trade of goods and services in Asia is accelerating. The trade dependence of Asian economies was more than 50 percent in 2019, with bilateral trade volumes continuing to grow, said Lin Guijun, vice president of the University of International Business and Economics, during the press conference at Boao on Sunday. 

Looking ahead to 2021, the Asian economy will likely experience consistent growth, with a growth rate of more than 6.5 percent, the report noted, citing the pandemic as the main variable that affects the regional economic growth.

The 2021 BFA, also the first major international event in 2021 held in perso, officially kicked off in Boao, a coastal tropical resort in South China's Hainan Province.

The four-day annual conference, which is themed "A World in Change: Join Hands to Strengthen Global Governance and Advance Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Cooperation," comes at a time when Asian countries are in dire need of joining hands to address problems such as the pandemic and global geopolitical uncertainties.

"Despite the pandemic, more than 4,000 participants have registered offline for the event, which is unprecedented and is the world's largest offline conference now," BFA Secretary General Li Baodong told a press conference on Sunday.

Participants to join the conference online or in person include foreign state leaders, senior government officials, heads of international organizations, and other dignitaries, Li introduced.

Global Times