The 9th Sino-Norwegian Social Policy Forum & 82nd International Forum opened in Haikou, capital of Hainan province, on Monday.

About 300 policy researchers from China, Norway, Finland, France and Canada attended its opening session of the two-day forum with the theme of "Enlarging the Size of the Middle Income Group: New Challenges and New Drivers for Economic Globalization".

Discussions were on topics such as establishing equitable social security, reforms and policies to expand the middle income group, and economic and social transformation of the group.

Vice Governor Li Guoliang of Hainan province met with the Norwegian Ambassador to China Svein O. Saether, and a number of policy researchers from both home and abroad before the opening ceremony. He then gave a welcome address at the opening ceremony, saying Hainan will develop modern service sectors, comprehensively raise the level of equitably shared public services, and make more efforts in targeted poverty alleviation to create better conditions for enlarging the size of the middle income group.

In his opening address, Saether said that since the establishment of their diplomatic relations in the early 1950s, Norway and China have been cooperating well. Next month, the Norwegian prime minister will head a large business delegation to visit China. This reflects the fact that the two countries are deepening their cooperation while also demonstrating the importance of China economically to Norway.

Liu Shijin, vice-chairman of China Development Research Foundation, believed that the key to enlarging the size of the middle income group is to form a framework that includes comprehensively sustainable continuous education, a full-coverage social security system and promotion of social mobility to break up social hierarchical consolidation.

The forum was jointly organized by the China Institute for Reform and Development and the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research.

mazhiping@chinadaily.com.cn