The Wanshou Forum, an international gathering themed around China's reform, development and national governance modernization, is set to be held in the birthplace of the country's rural reform - Xiaogang village in Fengyang county of Anhui province - on Saturday. 

2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the implementation of China's reform and opening up policy. The 19th Wanshou Forum will gather 200 representatives of 66 political parties from 45 countries and regions across the world, as well as scholars and experts from Chinese organizations, to discuss the practice and experience of China's reform as well as the deepening of the reform. Other domestic topics include new development concepts, rural vitalization, and the modernization of the country's governance system, while international topics include economic policy and reform of the global governance system.

In addition, participants will see firsthand what changes the village of Xiaogang has undergone since triggering China's rural reform 40 years ago.

In 1978, 18 farmers in Xiaogang village boldly signed a secret agreement to divide communally owned farmland into individual plots at the risk of being labeled "counterrevolutionary," inadvertently beginning a series of rural reforms across China.

The Wanshou Forum was created by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 2016 as a "platform for international exchange and dialogue."

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