Global concerns in Alpine land: the World Economic Forum continues to bring together business and political leaders, and representatives of civil society to its annual meeting in Davos end-January. A report by Swiss News.

AuteurO'Brien, Tom
Fonction Cover Story

Founded in 1971, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting in the Swiss Alpine resort is supposed to encourage a dialogue between diverse interest groups from across the globe dealing with a host of pertinent social, political and economic issues.

This Forum calls itself an independent organisation and is funded by the membership fees of the 1,000 foremost global companies fund it. The forum claims to be committed to "improving the state of the world by providing a collaborative framework for world leaders to address global issues".

It also states that it wants to promote entrepreneurship in the global public interest while maintaining its non-partisan and independent position.

This year, the main discussion at the forum revolves around the topic of "Partnering for Security and Prosperity".

A Quick Recap

Last year's annual meeting was themed on "Building Trust". Following on from a series of corporate scandals, the WEF used the annual meeting to hammer home its view that just a handful of unscrupulous businessmen had created scams and scandals. It insisted that the vast majority of those involved in business were still striving for good governance.

Last year also saw the WEF's annual meeting returning to Davos after taking its biggest annual event to New York in 2002. The brief move across the other side of the Atlantic was used to highlight the organisation's commitment to face issues raised by the terrorist attacks of the previous September in that same city.

"We have always said that Davos is our home and that we want to be in Davos to hold our Annual Meeting," says Andre Schneider, managing director and chief operating officer of the WEF. "Nevertheless, we will, if the geopolitical situation requires, move our annual forum exceptionally to some other location."

Later, in 2003, some 2,311 people attended the annual meeting in Davos with the usual impressive roll call. These included 24 heads of state, 82 cabinet ministers, 67 heads of international organizations, 13 labour leaders, 74 heads of non-governmental organizations, 177 academics, 1,300 business leaders and 282 media leaders who took part in more than 270 discussion sessions.

Up Ahead in 2004

Schneider tells Swiss News that this year's annual meeting would be looking at the broad subject of "Partnering for Security and Prosperity".

"Amongst all the many important themes under discussion at this year's Annual Meeting," says Schneider, "I would like to point out the...

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