Ratan Tata appointed member of China-backed Board of Boao Forum for Asia

Ratan Tata on 10 April 2014 was appointed as a member of the Board of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA). The post is a rare distinction for an Indian in the Chinese government-backed influential body.

Ratan Tata is one of the 15 members of the Board of BFA. The other influential personalities includes former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badwai, former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and former Prime Minister of France Jean-Pierre Raffarin besides former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) is an ordinary member of the forum.

The appointment of Ratan Tata to the board of the BFA is seen as part of China's efforts to push closer ties with India.

Tata is the most successful Indian business group in China. TCS has also done well by making forays into the local Chinese IT market. Range Rover SUV manufactured by TATA-owned Jaguar Land Rover is a big hit in China.

BFA was formed in 2001 on the lines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It has its fixed address in Bo'ao in Hainan province of China, although the Secretariat is based in Beijing.

Every year top political and business leaders of World gather at Boao to brain storm on global political and economic issues.

BFA

The founding of the BFA was driven by the People's Republic of China and founded by 26 Asian and Australasian states on 27 February 2001. The organisation held its first meeting on 12 April 2002.

Initiated in 1998 by Fidel V. Ramos, former President of the Philippines, Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia, and Morihiro Hosokawa, former Prime Minister of Japan, the Boao Forum for Asia was formally inaugurated in February 2001.

The Boao Forum for Asia is a non-profit organisation that hosts high-level forums for leaders from government, business and academia in Asia and other continents to share their vision on the most pressing issues in this dynamic region and the world at large.

The Forum is committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries even closer to their development goals.