BOAO, Hainan, April 21 (Xinhua) - Fidel V. Ramos, Chairman of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) and former President of the Philippines，said here Friday that the forum aims to develop in five "E"s in the next five years.

    Although the BFA has made many achievements in the past five years, it foresees a number of challenges for future development. To face these challenges, the BFA will endeavor to make progress in five fields, shortened as five "E"s, said Ramos.

    The first “E” is to promote the economic integration process of Asia, one of the major missions of the forum, he said.

    The second “E” is energy development. The development of energy must be sustainable and the BFA will be endeavored to balance the demand of energy, which has been rising in the United States, the European Union, and major Asian developing countries such as China and India, and the supply of oil, gas and water resources in the world that is limited, said Ramos.

    “The most important thing is to make sure that we do not abuse the resources,” he said.

    As for Ramos, the third “E” is to empower the people, especially those poor and disadvantaged. “The aim of BFA is to improve the availability of medical resources, houses, clean water and development opportunities for those people,” he said.

    The fourth “E” is efficiency. Efficiency for Asian governments is to reduce and eliminate corruption and for enterprises, it is to improve the business efficiency, he said.

    For the fifth “E”, Ramos explains that it is the expansion of membership.

    The BFA saw its founding membership list expand to 28 countries from the original 26 with the participation of New Zealand and Israel and is planning to change its logo to include the two countries and some Pacific countries.

    To include the two non-Asian countries into the forum demonstrates the international perspective of the BFA, said Ramos.

    Upon the permanent theme of “Asia Searching for Win-Win”, the BFA has gone to a new and highier level, he said.

    Since founded in 2001, BFA has made achievements in some other “E”s, including environmental protection, energy development, and education and training, said Ramos. Enditem