Kim Dong-won, an executive at Hanwha Group’s financial arm, attended a roundtable session of global business leaders hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Boao Forum on Wednesday.

Kim, 33, was one of 50 business leaders invited to the meeting with the Chinese president. The list of attendees included Derong Chen, president of China Baowu Steel Group, Minsheng Yang, executive chairman at China Life Insurance Company, and Takeshi Uchiyamada, chairman of the board of directors at Toyota Motor.

Kim was invited to the meeting in recognition of his role as a young leader at Boao, the Asian version of Switzerland’s Davos Forum. The second son of Hanhwa Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn was recognized at the forum two years ago as a “Young Business Leader” and has participated in the annual event for three consecutive years as a panelist.

Hanwha was the only Korean company to host an official session, discussing the present and future of the global blockchain ecosystem. Speakers included Trent McConaghy, founder of BigchainDB, Loi Luu, Kyber Netwok and Antti Pennanen, founder of Moni, a financial technology company based in Finland, the company said.

To facilitate a network of global blockchain experts, Hanwha also hosted its “Hanwha Night” session on the sidelines of the Boao Forum.

Hanwha Life Insurance has recently launched a task force to seek new business opportunities in blockchain technology, the company added.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)