Six forums, a cultural dialogue, a movie dialogue and other events, are being held during the forum, which opened on Thursday. It includes sharing ideas about the contribution to human civilization of international relations, world economy, cultural exchanges, ecological civilization, the Belt and Road Initiative, the internet, philosophy, science and society and traditional medicine.

This year’s conference is co-hosted by the Taihu World Cultural Forum and China Daily, with support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Counselor’s Office of the State Council.

Founded in March 2008, the Taihu World Cultural Forum is a high-level, unofficial international cultural forum. The previous four annual conferences were held in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Macao.

Congratulatory Message to the Fifth Annual Conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum

On behalf of the Chinese government and people and also in my own name, I wish to extend warm congratulations to the opening of the fifth annual conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum.

Inter-civilization exchanges and mutual learning are an important driver for human progress and world peace and development. For millennia, humanity has been moving forward thanks to the interactions among different nations and cultures. This annual conference, under the theme "Dialogue of Civilizations: Building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind", will serve to enhance communication, build consensus, deepen cooperation and promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.

China advocates a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation and calls on all countries to join hands in building a community with a shared future for mankind. As greater exchanges and mutual learning enrich civilizations and make them more colorful, we look forward to working together with the rest of the international community to encourage respect and harmony among civilizations and make inter-civilization exchange a positive force for building the community with a shared future for mankind. By sharing development opportunities and jointly facing up to common challenges, let us make our world a better place.

I wish the conference a great success.

Xi Jinping

President

The People's Republic of China