Boao Town, Hainan Province, south China - March 25, 2017
1. Various of attendees at opening ceremony of Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017
2. Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli walking toward stage
3. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhang Gaoli, Chinese Vice Premier (ending with shot 5):
"Asia's development cannot be achieved without the wider world, and the prosperity of the world cannot be realized without Asia. The decades of rapid development in Asian countries is a process of continued in-depth participation in economic globalization. Asian countries have remained committed to economic globalization rather than exclusion, and have been active participants and firm supporters of economic globalization and free trade. They have yielded fruitful results and have made important contributions to economic globalization."
4. Various of country officials seated at ceremony
5. Attendees at ceremony

Asian countries are active participants and firm supporters of economic globalization and free trade, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli said at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017 in south China's Hainan Province on Saturday.

"Asia's development cannot be achieved without the wider world, and the prosperity of the world cannot be realized without Asia," Zhang said.

Referencing the forum's theme of "Globalization and Free Trade: The Asian Perspective", Zhang highlighted the growing economic globalization.

"The decades of rapid development in Asian countries is a process of continued in-depth participation in economic globalization. Asian countries have remained committed to economic globalization rather than exclusion," he said, adding that "they have yielded fruitful results and have made important contributions to economic globalization".

China has always been a firm supporter of the globalization.

At this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) in January, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for joint efforts to chart the course for economic globalization and for creating new models of global growth, cooperation, governance and development at the opening ceremony.