BOAO, Hainan - Vice-Premier Li Keqiang met with members of the board of directors of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in Boao of Hainan on Saturday.

The annual session of the BFA, a non-governmental and non-profit international organization established in 2001, will be held from April 1 to 3 in Boao, a town in south China's Hainan Province.

Li said this year's session will promote common development and cooperation between Asia and the world. The forum will provide helpful suggestions for Asian countries that are dealing with global challenges and play a positive role in Asia's development.

Li said Asian countries should speed up development while strengthening cooperation in the face of a complicated international environment. He stressed the importance of opening up, calling on emerging economies to conduct more exchanges with developed countries in order to learn how to cope with crises.

"We should endeavor for a stable and sustainable recovery and take a long-term prospective to score strong, sustainable, balanced growth and sound development," Li said.

He called on the BFA to generate more opinions and ideas on the major issues faced by emerging economies and vowed to continue to provide assistance for the forum's development.

Members of the BFA board of directors pledged to continue to make efforts to expand the influence of the forum and contribute to the development of Asia and the world as a whole.