The Summit was organized by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, focusing on issues including poverty elimination, climate change and global governance.
Hundreds of representatives from around 30 countries and international organizations are attending the meeting. A report entitled "Rebalancing global economic governance - opportunities for China and the G20 beyond 2015" was published before the opening ceremony.
Two general discussion forums and six seminars centering on sustainable development will be held through Saturday. Experts say that Chinese Think Tanks need to deliver their own voice and let more people know about China.
"This year's summit has drawn wide attention from the international community, with more than 150 foreign experts and scholars coming to join the discussion with their Chinese counterparts, looking at global sustainable development beyond 2015. They will discuss the guidelines, goals and roadmap for the development. So this year's summit is on a bigger scale, it has attracted a larger number of participants, AND will cover a wider range of topics," said Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of China Center for Int'l Economic Exchanges.
"Chinese people figure how to do that and how to combine researches in China in ways that would allow it to compete on the world's market. What's happened is that the success of Chinese economy is being copied by other people, and they're now competing with China. I think still, the major force for growth is the education and character of the people, and their work ethic," said Thomas J. Sargent, US economist.