Finding China's new future

Major global forum in Chengdu reflects growing economic clout of western part of the country, Zheng Yangpeng reports.

As the 2013 Fortune Global Forum opens in Chengdu on Thursday, the world's spotlight will shine on the southwest megapolis, where more than 600 business leaders from world-class corporations will gather.

This time, the city and its province, renowned for giant pandas and spicy cuisine, are determined to impress the world with economic and technological vibrancy.

"West China has proved to be a major draw for leaders from all over the world. We are pleased to bring that focus to Chengdu, a great city that is the center of the region's story of development," Andrew Serwer, Fortune's managing editor, said at a news conference a few days ahead of the forum.

This is the fourth time that the Fortune Global Forum has set up stage in China, after Shanghai (1999), Hong Kong (2001) and Beijing (2005).

Fortune's choices offer a clue on how the world's attention quietly shifted to China.

Back in 1999, when the prestigious world business summit convened in China for the first time in Shanghai, the nation was still reeling from the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. It was not a member of the World Trade Organization and was the seventh-largest economy in the world, after Italy. Many foreign corporations had just entered China, mostly in Shanghai.

They were lured by the potential opportunities of the world's most populous country, but were still figuring out the sustainability of the country's economic growth and what the market of 1.3 billion people meant for their marketing strategy.