The World Economic Forum (WEF) has called off its special annual meeting that was to be held in Singapore in the coming months. This decision was taken due to the uncertainty arising because of COVID-19 and its impact on various regions in the world.
Now, the next annual meeting will instead take place in the first half of 2022, WEF stated.
WEF in a statement said, "Regretfully, the tragic circumstances unfolding across geographies, an uncertain travel outlook, differing speeds of vaccination rollout and the uncertainty around new variants combine to make it impossible to realise a global meeting with business, government and civil society leaders from all over the world at the scale which was planned. This is despite the excellent support provided by the Government of Singapore."
WEF added that the final location and date for the meeting in 2022 will be determined based on an assessment of the situation later this summer.
“It was a difficult decision, particularly in view of the great interest of our partners to come together not just virtually but in person, and to contribute to a more resilient, more inclusive and more sustainable world,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. “But ultimately the health and safety of everyone concerned is our highest priority.”
WEF stressed it will continue to engage its increasing number of partners into their numerous work streams addressing the key issues on the global agenda through public private cooperation.
On December 7, 2020, WEF stated that the special annual meeting 2021 will be held in Singapore. However, it will return to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland for the annual meeting 2022.
The special annual meeting 2021 in Singapore was supposed to be the first global leadership event to address worldwide recovery from the pandemic.
