WEF 2021: Organisers move event to Singapore

Organisers of the annual World Economic Forum summit of country leaders and corporate chiefs have announced that the event which was scheduled to hold in Switzerland will now hold in Singapore.

The Special Annual Meeting will now hold from 13-16 May, 2021 in Singapore.

The forum’s spokesperson, Adrian Monck, said on Tuesday, that the change in location reflects the Forum’s priority of safeguarding the health and safety of participants and the host community.

“After careful consideration, and in light of the current situation with regards to COVID-19 cases, it was decided that Singapore was best placed to hold the meeting”.

According to data, Switzerland has 358,568 confirmed cases of coronavirus, 5,566 deaths and an average of 5000 daily new cases.

As of Monday , 9,809 new cases and 146 new deaths were recorded in the country.

Meanwhile, Singapore ,since the outbreak of the pandemic, has recorded 58,285 confirmed cases and 29 deaths. As of Monday, 13 new cases, 0 deaths were recorded.

According to the statement published on its site, the forum will return to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, for the Annual Meeting in 2022.

It said the special Annual Meeting 2021 in Singapore would be the first global leadership event to address worldwide recovery from the pandemic.

This in-person meeting will bring together leaders to focus on shaping solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. Further details will be announced in due course.

The Founder and Executive Chairperson of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, said “A global leadership summit is of crucial importance to address how we can recover together.”

“The Special Annual Meeting 2021 will be a place for leaders from business, government and civil society to meet in person for the first time since the start of the global pandemic. Public-private cooperation is needed more than ever to rebuild trust and address the fault lines that emerged in 2020.” he said.

During the usual “Davos week”, which in 2021 runs from 25-29 January, the Forum will host a virtual event to rebuild trust and shape the principles, policies and partnerships needed for 2021.

The Davos Agenda will feature participation from heads of state and government, chief executive officers, civil society leaders, global media and youth leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. Building a better future for work, accelerating stakeholder capitalism and harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be important topics on the agenda.

Ahead of the Special Annual Meeting 2021, the Forum will host the Global Technology Governance Summit in Tokyo from 6-7 April 2021. This will feature global stakeholders from government, business and civil society dedicated to ensuring the responsible design and deployment of emerging technologies through public-private collaboration.