President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the opening ceremony of the 2017 annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, held in south China's Hainan Province Saturday morning.

Since its establishment 16 years ago, the Boao Forum for Asia has played an important role in building Asian consensus, promoting Asian cooperation and upgrading Asian influence, Xi noted.

The theme for this year's conference is "Globalization and Free Trade: The Asian Perspectives."

Xi said the theme reflected the attention on economic globalization paid by the international community, especially the Asian countries.

The president called upon attendees of the conference to pool their wisdom on solving the major problems faced by the world and regional economy, and jointly push forward a more dynamic, inclusive and sustainable economic globalization process.