Themed "Innovating at Scale", the 17th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos, will be held in Dalian, Liaoning province, from June 23 to 25.

"We will explore how technology and innovation can be harnessed to address real-world problems and challenges, and to generate value across all of the economy and all of society," said Gim Huay Neo, managing director and member of the managing board of the World Economic Forum.

The Annual Meeting of the New Champions is a flagship meeting of the World Economic Forum. It is focused on entrepreneurship, new business models and next-generation companies.

She said that 1,500 leaders from different backgrounds, industries and geographies, representing government, academia, enterprises, international organizations and civil society, will attend the meeting.

Five priority areas will be discussed, including finding prosperity amid shifting trade and industrial realities, and driving energy and nature-positive transitions as a source of wealth and competitiveness, as well as China-specific topics.

"There is significant interest in China as the world's largest trading nation, one of the top investors and also, as a manufacturing and innovation powerhouse," she said. "The annual meeting will provide a direct pulse on China trends and opportunities, sharing of best practices and also an opportunity for international businesses to explore win-win partnerships and shared prosperity."

The forum will publish more than 15 research reports enriched with data and expert analysis, covering a full range of topics from the global economy, top emerging technologies, energy transition and others.

Neo said that the organizers are exploring how to bring in more innovative formats to the annual meeting, and bring the best of the spirit of Dalian to the world — a spirit that is open and one that embraces change, anchored in capability and connection, and fueled by ambition and vision.

Dalian has been home to the annual meeting since its first launch in 2007, hosting the annual meeting in alternate years, alongside Tianjin. This year marks the ninth time that Dalian will host the Summer Davos Forum.

Qiu Baolin, deputy mayor of Dalian, said work on this year's annual meeting is proceeding in an orderly manner.

Liaoning and Dalian have established a two-level working mechanism at the provincial and municipal levels and developed an overall preparation plan and a task list to ensure that all tasks are implemented efficiently.

"We will fully leverage the forum's role as a bridge to build more cooperation platforms and open up more channels for collaboration, aiming to attract more investors from both domestic and global markets to come to Liaoning and Dalian," he said.

zhangxiaomin@chinadaily.com.cn