The 2017 Fortune Global Forum (财富全球论坛) was held in Guangzhou from December 6 to 8, 2017 for the first time with the theme of "Openness and Innovation: Shaping the Global Economy". This is the fifth Fortune Global Forum held in China. Since its beginning in 1995, the Fortune Global Forum has been providing chances for CEOs of the world's most important companies and world leaders to get together and discuss matters about international business.
There are several reasons why Guangzhou was chosen as the host city for the 2017 Fortune Global Forum. First, Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province which is historically an active centre for free trade. Guangdong Province is also the most populous (人口稠密的) province in China with a population of 110 million, bigger than that of any other province in China. What's more, more than half of the Fortune Global 500 companies have already set up branch offices (分公司) in Guangzhou.
Hosting the 2017 Fortune Global Forum also brings benefits to Guangzhou. First, it will help change the city into a high-level technology centre in the future. Moreover, it will attract more companies to invest and develop in Guangzhou and Guangzhou can take the chance to encourage local companies to go global and deepen cooperation with companies from all over the world.
Great effort was made in order to make the event a success. For example, a total of 1,200 volunteers were chosen mostly from universities to serve the 2017 Fortune Global Forum. Training courses were also carried out to prepare volunteers for their jobs. They even had a volunteer's song. The lyrics and music of the song was written by the famous lyricist Zhong Shan and composer Wang Xiaosong. The official version of the song was sung by famous singers Wang Chenrui and Wang Sulong.
