Singapore instead of Bürgenstock: the next WEF will definitely take place abroad

Chat with the powerful: Klaus Schwab welcomes US President Donald Trump for the second time in Davos earlier this year.

Keystone

(wap / sat) The next World Economic Forum (WEF) will definitely not take place in Switzerland. As the organizers announced on Monday, they have definitely chosen Singapore. The city of Lucerne and nearby Bürgenstock in the canton of Nidwalden are left behind. However, in a year, the WEF wants to return to Switzerland. But after Davos. Traditionally, the gathering of the world’s political, business and science elites took place in the last week of January in Landwassertal.

“A global leadership summit is of crucial importance to discuss how we can recover together from the pandemic,” WEF founder Klaus Schwab was quoted as saying in the statement. The conference should be the first global gathering on the pandemic, where business executives, governments and civil society could meet in person. In addition, the change of location should reflect the priority of the forum, “to protect the health and safety of the participants and the host community”, as it says in the communication.

Virtual conference «Davos» as a replacement

According to the Reuters news agency, WEF chief Borge Brende wrote in an email on Monday that the annual meeting management had had to decide “unfortunately” against Europe because, given the current Covid 19 situation, it was “unlikely” that he would be in it. He would be able to create the necessary conditions for the event. Singapore, on the other hand, was “very successful in treating the pandemic,” said WEF chief Brende. In the city-state, the number of corona infections is currently only in the double-digit range.

However, as the WEF writes in its announcement, a virtual offer will be prepared for the traditional Swiss “Davos Week” at the end of January. Especially to “restore confidence.” Heads of State and Government, Executive Directors and representatives of civil society will participate in this “Davos Agenda”.

It is already the second location change in the pandemic.

Until two weeks ago WEF 2021 was scheduled to take place at Bürgenstock in Nidwalden. It later emerged that the WEF leadership had informed two federal advisers about a possible transfer to Singapore. Unlike Switzerland, the Asian city-state has controlled the spread of the corona virus and accommodates entrepreneurs in its quarantine regulations. Before that, it had been planned for a longer period that the WEF would also take place in Davos next year, but in early summer and on a reduced scale.

The WEF has already moved abroad due to global political events: it took place in 2002 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. The following year, the powerful of the world met again in Davos. The first WEF took place in 1971. Organized by Klaus Schwab, 32, the rise of large American corporations and the “influence of computers in the life of each individual” were discussed in Davos.

The enemy of critics of globalization on the left and right

The WEF was only indisputable in its early years. The gathering of the world’s business and political elite at a privately organized event at an alpine spa was always a provocation. In the late 1990s, the WEF became the focus of the alternative left-wing anti-globalization movement. In Swiss cities, the slogan “Eliminate the WEF” could be read on the walls of houses, and there were regular riots at anti-WEF demonstrations. After the turn of the millennium, rising security costs even raised the question of whether Switzerland could still afford the WEF.

With Donald Trump’s election campaign four years ago, the WEF finally became a symbol of rampant globalization and international elitism for the right wing. Trump spoke of the “Man from Davos” responsible for the decline of the American industrial worker. As president, Trump insisted on traveling to Davos twice, most recently in January. He also took the time to meet with Federal President Simonetta Sommaruga. Then came the coronavirus.