The First World Longevity Forum and Life Science Conference (WLF&LSC), organized by Hezhou Municipal People's Government, opened on Friday in Hezhou city, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The WLF&LSC aims to build a longevity city brand for Hezhou, promote life science applications, and facilitate human health and longevity.

Experts, scholars and business representatives from the global medical, health and life sciences fields had in-depth discussions at the WLF&LSC and provided advice and suggestions for solving the problem of population ageing.

Hezhou city, famous for its longevity culture, has a superior ecological endowment. Guangxi is also actively promoting the development of the health care industry. Through the conference, new ideas, new initiatives and new experiences at home and abroad can be shared to bring the local health care industry to a new level, said Liu Muren, vice chairman of the Guangxi Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a local political advisory body.

Hezhou has five outstanding advantages and characteristics in developing healthy and longevity industries, such as obvious regional advantages, superior ecological environment, rich natural resources, rich history and humanities, and huge potential for later development. The city will focus more on the ecological construction and take advantage of the conference to enhance its advantages in green development, according to Li Hongqing, secretary of the Hezhou Municipal Party Committee.

Health and longevity are major issues that all countries in the world are paying attention to and studying. Nowadays, the ageing population in the world is becoming more and more serious. The standard set by the United Nations for outstanding longevity is over 75 centenarians to every 1 million people. The proportion of centenarians in Hezhou City is 19.91/100,000, far beyond the international consensus on the longevity standard, said Denis G. Antoine, chairman of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS).

In recent years, under the guidance of the "World Longevity City" brand, Hezhou city has actively developed the eco-health industry.

At present, there have been 91 eco-health projects in the city, including 35 projects under construction, with a total investment of about 21.55 billion yuan; and 56 key projects for planning and reserve, with a total budget of 27.95 billion yuan.