China has been in cooperation with the World Economic Forum, a global economic organization, since 1979, and the forum has seen the presence of some senior Chinese officials and entrepreneurs in its annual meetings.
In the last three years, late Vice Premier Huang Ju, incumbent Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan and State Councilor Hua Jianmin have participated in the annual meetings at the Swiss town of Davos.
Since 1981, the forum has partnered with the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC), a non-governmental organization, to hold the China Business Summit.
Twenty-nine Chinese enterprises, including ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), China Mobile, Lenovo and Sinopec, have been registered members of the forum.
The upcoming Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions, scheduled to be held from Thursday to Saturday in China's port city of Dalian, is the forum's latest event in close partnership with China.
Different from the forum's annual meetings at the Swiss alpine town of Davos, which focuses on the world's foremost companies and macroeconomic and social issues, the Dalian meeting moves a step forward to look at fast-emerging companies, or the new champions.
"The purpose is to integrate new-comers to the global dialogues, and to make them more aware of global opportunities and risks," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the forum.
The notion of the meeting, also dubbed by many as summer Davos meeting, was initiated by Schwab in 2005.
The invitation-only meeting in Dalian will convene more than 1, 700 participants from 90 countries and regions. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech at the opening of the meeting.
In June last year, the forum set up an office in Beijing to handle host bids of more than 10 Chinese cities. Dalian, traditionally taken as the "window of northeast China" and one of the first group of cities opened up to the outside world in the 1980s, won the bid.
The next summer meeting will be held in Tianjin, a port city near the Chinese capital of Beijing.
The World Economic Forum, established in 1971, is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
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