She said Singapore, with its emphasis on racial and religious harmony, presents a microcosm of a "larger challenge facing the world in getting people with different religions, values and backgrounds to live together harmoniously".

The conference is a good example of conducting dialogue within Asian civilizations as well as reaching out to other civilizations in the world, she said.

Author and public intellectual Parag Khanna, pointing to the major issues that were set to come out of the dialogue and their importance in the current international climate, told China Daily, "The most significant geopolitical reality of the 21st century is that we live for the first time in human history in a world that is both multipolar and multicivilizational.

"Powers of the East and West are equally influential in the world. Thus we need a new kind of understanding of how civilizations will relate to each other premised on coexistence rather than dominance," said Khanna, author of The Future Is Asian: Commerce, Conflict, and Culture in the 21st Century.

"Among the main obstacles are historical mindsets that presume that one power must dominate the system for it to be stable, which is false," he said, adding that there are many "unique civilizations, with none more special than the others".

German Sinologist Ole Doering said the message he took from President Xi's speech was that of "openness, that everybody should contribute what they can and try to engage in mutual learning".

Uxi Mufti, founder of the National Heritage Museum in Pakistan, said Xi "has come up with a wonderful idea. His idea will generate cooperation, in Asia at least. The paradigm of going forward has changed. We are into an age of interdependence."

Laurence Brahm, a senior international fellow at the the Beijing think tank Center for China and Globalization, said, "President Xi's speech set forth a fresh paradigm based on a set of universal values founded on the core heritage and culture of very ancient civilizations.

"The values of Asia are based on nonduality, harmony and synergy, while Western values are premised on the concept of duality often expressed in a zero-sum game," Brahm said.

Other luminaries from the public and private sector also discussed related topics at various forums during the conference, while an Asian culture carnival, Asian civilization week and Asian food festival were being held in conjunction with the main event.

At a forum on the global influence of Asian civilizations, Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said dialogue is the "origin of civilization".

Chinese civilization "also originated from dialogue", and conflict in itself cannot produce civilization, said Zheng, whose research interests include China's transformation and its external relations.

Cambodian Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said understanding different civilizations means understanding each other to promote prosperity in a more collaborative way.

"I am very optimistic that today's meeting will form the basis of mutual understanding, thus creating a better world," he said.