The 2019 World Economic Forum's (WEF) will be held in the Swiss city of Davos on January 22-25
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2019) The 2019 World Economic Forum's (WEF) will be held in the Swiss city of Davos on January 22-25.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos is an international organization for the development of public-private cooperation.
The history of WEF begins in January 1971, when a professor at the University of Geneva Klaus Schwab for the first time brought together leading business people and politicians in Switzerland to discuss prospects for the development of European business in the world market.
Such meetings were originally called the European Management Forum and drew participants only from the western European countries.
The topics of the forum have gradually been expanded over the years, and started to include political and economic issues, implications of technological progress, as well as problems of debt of developing countries.
In January 1974, political leaders were invited to the Swiss town of Davos for the first time. In 1976, the organization introduced a permanent membership system.
In 1987, the European Management Forum was renamed to the World Economic Forum to reflect its increased global significance.
About 1,000 large companies and organizations are currently members of the forum.
Professor Klaus Schwab is the founder and WEF permanent executive chairman. The forum is headquartered in Geneva.
The Annual Meeting is the main WEF event, which is held in the world famous Swiss ski resort, Davos Klosters, in late January - early February. The only exception was in 2002, when the meeting was held in New York in solidarity with the United States after 9/11 terror attacks.
The Davos meetings include discussions of the key international economic issues and are attended by leading political figures, representatives of the scientific and business communities from various countries and international organizations.
The forum's program includes "mini-summits" with the participation of state officials, and seminars, which are organized mainly for the interaction between the business community, official delegations and certain political figures.
Organizers tighten the selection criteria from year to year, which gives a distinct elite nature to the meetings. Since 1994, the condition for the attendance of the forum has been the membership in the WEF. The WEF members pay annual contributions to the forum, which are used to organize the forum events. The contribution rates are established in negotiations with the WEF leadership.
The WEF also holds regional summits with the participation of government and business communities, as well as their trade and financial partners from other regions; national (country-specific) meetings, two-day seminars and symposia with the participation of business representatives and members of the government; informal meetings between government representatives and delegates from the leading companies from selected branches of industry (industrial summits).
The forum has a rather complex organizational and management structure.
The Board of Trustees acts as guardians of the forum's mission and values. The membership of the board is divided equally between business representatives and leaders of international organizations and civil society. Klaus Schwab heads the Board of Trustees.
The Managing Board, chaired by the Forum's President Borge Brende acts as the executive body of the World Economic Forum, ensuring the implementation of forum's activities and acting as its representative for third-party organizations. The board is held collectively responsible for the forum and is accountable to the Board of Trustees.
Operational guidance is provided by the Executive Committee, which includes representatives from more than 60 countries.
There are three centers in the WEF structure: for the global, regional and industry agendas.
The WEF structure also includes several communities, such as Technology Pioneers, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Young Global Leaders, Young Scientists, Cultural Leaders and others.
Each year, the WEF publishes reports and rankings, in particular, the Global Competitiveness Report, the Global Gender Gap Report, Regional Risks for Doing Business and others.
For the first time, the Soviet delegation participated in the forum in 1987. Russia as a sovereign country has been participating in Davos meetings since 1992.
In 2018, the 48th World Economic Forum was held in Davos on January 23-26, and was attended by 70 heads of state and government. The theme of the forum was "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World."
The official Russian delegation in 2018 was headed by then-Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
