Ban elected chairman of BFA

Ban Ki-moon, former secretary-general of the United Nations, was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of the Boao Forum for Asia on Monday.

The General Meeting of Members of the Boao Forum for Asia elected the new board of directors in the morning, and Ban replaced Yasuo Fukuda, former Japanese prime minister, to become the new chairman of the 19-member Board of Directors.

According to a resolution of the new board, Fukuda, along with other 10 outgoing members of the previous board, are invited to the Council of Advisers.

Ban said while addressing a meeting on Monday that joint efforts are needed to achieve the goal of sustainable development and deal with climate change.

He warned that if the countries failed to make joint efforts to cope with common threats, the whole world will sink.

He called for new type of multilateral cooperation to share development opportunities, achieve common prosperity, and boost interconnectivity of infrastructure.

Zhou Xiaochuan, former vice-chairman of China's top political advisory body and former governor of the People's Bank of China, replaced Zeng Peiyan as the chief representative of China to the BFA.

According to the BFA Charter, the chief representative of China is the ex-officio member and the vice-chairman of the Board.

Li Baodong, vice-minister of foreign affairs, was appointed secretary-general of the board.

Among the 19 members of the board, 12 are newly elected, including Ban, Zhou and Li, and seven are from the previous board, including Shaukat Aziz, former prime minister of Pakistan.

The 12 newly elected members are political and business leaders from Asia and the world, including Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former president of the Philippines and Carlos Gutierrez, former secretary of commerce of the United States.

Eight outgoing members of the previous Council of Advisors, including Fidel Ramos, former President of the Philippines, and Bob Hawke, former prime minister of Australia, were honored with the title of BFA Honorary Member in recognition of their outstanding and substantive contributions to the forum.