More than 130 government officials, business leaders and representatives of the media took part in a roundtable entitled "Hong Kong and the Internationalization of the RMB" on Thursday.

The event, the China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable, was also held to mark the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the inaugural edition of China's only national English-language newspaper.

Peter Wong, chief executive of HSBC Asia Pacific, was the honorary chairman. He and several other prominent guests also attended the panel discussion on the internationalization of the yuan. Among them were Charles Li, chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd; and Fan Gang, director of the National Institute of Economic Research. Zhou Li, publisher of China Daily Asia Pacific and chairman of Asia Leadership Roundtable, gave the opening address.

"China Daily Asia Roundtable has emerged as a meeting of great minds and ideas and a platform to renew and strengthen strategic partnerships," Zhou said.

Launched in December 2010, China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable is an assembly of movers and shakers in the region who share their insights on strategic issues relating to economic, business and social developments in Asia. The aim is to enhance communication and increase mutual understanding between China, the region and the rest of the world.

Like the China Daily CEO Roundtable, which made its debut in 2004, China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable is another milestone in the three-decade-long history of China Daily, which Zhou referred to as "a journey of grit, gumption and gusto".

Launched as an eight-page national English daily on June 1, 1981, China Daily has over the past 30 years become a global media group with 12 publications under its umbrella.

Covering everything from the world's political and economic situations to the latest trends in music and art, China Daily has become the most cited news source with an average daily circulation of more than 400,000. Its website boasts daily page views of more than 31 million.

Reflecting on the paper's 30 years of existence, Zhou said, "China Daily has surmounted many challenges, but has never been static."

In a move to further reach out to its audiences worldwide and become their voice, the newspaper last year launched its Europe and Asia editions.

And that isn't all. China Daily Asia Weekly, currently distributed in five countries and regions including Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Macao, will soon become a news staple for people living in Australia, India, Malaysia and a few Gulf countries, according to Zhou. And China Daily is going to Africa as well.

All this, noted Zhou, is "in response to the world's interest to know China" and "China's eagerness to know and reach out to the world".

In his congratulatory letter to China Daily, Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, mentioned the paper as "an important medium of international communication" and "the window for China to know the world and for the world to understand China".

It is with this objective that China Daily launched its Hong Kong edition in 1997, the same year that China resumed sovereignty over the city.

With a strong emphasis on local news, the Hong Kong edition keeps readers abreast of what's happening in the community while offering the latest information and insights about the mainland and the world at large. It is made distinctive by its focused look at the linkages and integration between the city and the mainland.

This focus on links and integration has become "a mainstay of China Daily's coverage", as Wong put it. But "for good reasons", he added.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/03/2011 page4)