Davos: The biggest congregation of global leaders will return Monday to the usual snow-laden setting of this Swiss ski resort town with thousands of participants including about a hundred from India set to attend the WEF meeting .
The World Economic Forum (WEF) had to host its last annual meeting in 2022 in May as the summit could not take place in the usual month of January due to the pandemic-related restrictions. Before that, the 2021 meeting could take place online only.
Though the pandemic is yet to be declared totally over, restrictions are far a few and the war in Ukraine and the economic fallout of geopolitical as well as health crises have made the Davos meeting very interesting.
Nearly 50 heads of government or state are expected over the next five days for the meeting beginning Monday, while four Union Ministers — Mansukh Mandaviya, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Smriti Irani and R K Singh, as also Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, along with a number of officials and business leaders would be present from India.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Karnataka’s B S Bommai were also earlier listed, but they are unlikely to attend the summit. AAP leader Raghav Chaddha is also here, so are Telangana minister K T Rama Rao and Tamil Nadu minister Thangam Thennarasu. Among business leaders, Gautam Adani, Sanjiv Bajaj, Kumar Mangalam Birla, N Chandrasekaran, Nadir Godrej, Ajit Gulabchand, Sajjan Jindal, Sunil Mittal, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Nandan Nilekani, Adar Poonawalla, Rishad Premji and Sumant Sinha are likely to be present.
The meeting will call on leaders from across the globe to address immediate economic, energy and food crises while laying the groundwork for a more sustainable and resilient world. The organisers expect significant participation from Asia, including China and Japan.
The theme of the 53rd Annual Meeting would be ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World’ and it will convene more than 2,700 leaders from 130 countries, including 52 heads of state/government.
Top political leaders taking part include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, South Africa President Cyril M Ramaphosa, Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Swiss President Alain Berset and Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin.
Other top leaders include John F Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate of the United States of America; Avril Haines, US Director of National Intelligence; Martin J Walsh, Secretary of Labor of the United States; Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative; and Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank.
Heads of international organisations taking part include UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WEF said the annual meeting comes as multiple crises deepen divisions and fragment the geopolitical landscape and leaders must address people’s immediate, critical needs while also laying the groundwork for a more sustainable, resilient world by the end of the decade.