Artificial intelligence and high-quality development have become the focus of attention from both Chinese and foreign guests at sub-forums held on Wednesday during the ongoing annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in south China's Hainan Province.
On the day with the tightest schedule at 2024 BFA, various of sub-forums, roundtables and dialogues were held, during which heated discussions over generative AI and high-quality development attract great attention.

The sub-forum on generative AI, one of the most anticipated sub-forums, was held in the morning where experts and heads of leading companies talked about issues such as potential breakthroughs and risks in this field.

As AI tools such as ChatGPT and Sora have taken the world by storm, China has put forward an AI Plus initiative to promote the innovative and high-quality development of digital economy.

Another forum on innovation, green development, digital intelligence and integration driving high-quality development put emphasis on transportation and energy.

According to Chinese Vice Minister of Transport Li Yang, with expansive transportation networks, China has a high demand for energy resources and is pursuing innovation in transport and energy.

China has met a lot of challenges in these fields, with a typical example being a lack of charging piles and charging facilities which discourage people from traveling by new energy vehicles (NEVs). Li, therefore, pledged that China will make more efforts to solve the problem.

"China's annual output of NEVs is over 7 million, accounting for over 60 percent of the world total. Therefore, we need to build more charging piles and other charging facilities to relieve NEV drivers' anxiety," Li said.

Besides, multiple overseas Chinese business leaders and scholars were present at a roundtable discussion and exchanged their views on how to tap into new quality productive forces to drive high-quality development.

The 2024 BFA conference is held in Boao of south China's Hainan Province from March 26 to 29. Under the theme of "Asia and the World: Common Challenges, Shared Responsibilities", it comprises four major sections: world economy, sci-tech innovation, social development, and international cooperation, including more than 40 sub-forum activities.