The 2011 Beijing Forum kicks off Friday in Beijing. For the 8th consecutive year, the annual event is once again bringing together top scholars and practitioners around the world to discuss issues that have impact on global prosperity. As expected, the economic crisis is proving to be a major focus for debate.

It may be named the "Beijing Forum", but the agenda is a global one. With the shadow of the eurozone debt crisis cast over the world economy, participants of the Forum are focusing their attention on this critical issue.

Roger Myerson, 2007 Nobel Laureate in economics said "The ultimate problem of the Euro zone crisis is to stabilize their banking system. Whether the European banking system can be saved, the answer is yes it can be of course, but I think it will have to be saved by having government-subsidized infusions of capital. I suspect European Central Bank will have to lend money if necessary for governments to help purchase shares of banks, when private finances are unable to do that."

Justin Yifu Lin, Senior VP & Chief Economists, World Bank said "I think every country hopes to solve the eurozone debt crisis through cooperation, because if this problem cannot be tackled, the recovery of world economy will inevitably be damaged. "

James Mirrlees, 1996 Noble Laureate in economics said "I think when you have got several countries with more than 20 percent of unemployment, then we have a recession. It’s true that we have not got out of the other one. What we really have is a long-lived recession. Not so much double-dip. A double-dip suggests that came out of it and then we are

going back in. (But) we have not come out of it. There has been a little economic growth, but it had no serious impact on unemployment (issue). "

Justin Yifu Lin said "The possibility of a (double-dip recession) exists. However the bigger chances are economy of the Europe and United States might head into a long-term downturn Under the current situation, robust economic growth will be the biggest contribution China can make to the world economy.

Besides global economic issues, the development of China is, of course, one of the major topics on the agenda for the Beijing Forum. While one forum is unlikely solve all the world’s problems, dialogue is usually a good place start.