The opening ceremony and the first comprehensive meeting of the 5th Beijing-Tokyo Forum started at 9 this morning at the Furama Hotel Dalian.

Gao Anming, secretary-general of the China Daily’s editorial board, and Takashi Anzai, director of the Board of Seven Bank Ltd., spoke at the meeting on behalf of the organizing and executing committees of this year’s forum.

Former editor-in-chief of China Daily, Zhu Yinghuang, spoke on behalf of Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office. Kozo Watanabe, former Vice-Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Diet of Japan, gave a speech to kick off the two-day event.

Xia Deren, Party secretary of the Dalian municipal committee, welcomed the representatives of the forum.

Yuji Miyamoto, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the People’s Republic of China, also spoke at the meeting.

More than 100 representatives from various circles of both sides attended the forum, “Sino-Japanese Cooperation in Global Economic Crisis,” and carried out dialogues on politics, economics, media, regions and security issues in two comprehensive meetings and five penal forums.

The Beijing-Tokyo Forum, co-sponsored by China Daily and Genron NPO, a Japanese non-profit think tank, has been held alternately in Beijing and Tokyo since August 2005. The annual gathering is one of the most significant platforms for non-governmental communication between the two countries. For the first time this year’s forum is held in a non-capital city.