JEDDAH, 19 January 2007 — The World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday unveiled the program for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, including the key participants, themes and goals. The overarching theme of the meeting, which will take place from Jan. 24-28, is “Shaping the Global Agenda: The Shifting Power Equation.”
Speaking at a press conference at the WEF headquarters in Geneva, professor Klaus Schwab, the forum’s founder and executive chairman, said: “We are faced by a world which is increasingly schizophrenic. Our world is rapidly changing and power is shifting geopolitically, in business terms and even in the virtual world. Power, wealth and well-being are spread in ever more complex ways, leading to a world which is harder and harder to understand and which often seems alien to us.
“It is to make sense of this world, and to tackle its complex problems and opportunities, that leaders from all walks of life will once again meet in Davos. The annual meeting gives all of us a chance to understand and shape the global agenda in the year ahead.”
Over the course of the five-day meeting, 2,400 participants from 90 countries will convene in Davos, including 24 heads of state or government, 85 Cabinet ministers, along with religious leaders, media leaders and heads of nongovernmental organizations.
Among the heads of state or government participating in the Davos meeting are Jordan’s King Abdallah, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
Personalities from the media and cultural world contributing to the debates in Davos will include Al Jazeera International’s Riz Khan, BBC’s Nik Gowing, Arab News Editor in Chief Khaled Almaeena, Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria, Young Global Leaders Muna Abu Sulayman and Aishwarya Rai, musicians Bono and Peter Gabriel, author Paulo Coelho and chess champion Anatoly Karpov.
The program will follow four main themes that are high on the global agenda in 2007. These range from “Economics: New Drivers” and “Geopolitics: The Need for Fresh Mandates” to “Business: Leading in a Connected World,” and “Technology and Society: Identity, Community and Networks.”
The opening session will see German Chancellor Angela Merkel lay out her agenda for the year ahead. She will be chair of the G-8 for 2007 and rotating head of the European Council for the first six months of the year.
This year will also see the extension of the workshops held in the Davos WorkSpace. There will be two series under the overarching title “Designing New Solutions to Complex Challenges.” The CEO Series will examine “Leading in a Networked World,” with sessions ranging from “Collaborate to Innovate” to “Finding Future Talent,” and the Future Series will investigate “Living in a Networked World” with a series of six sessions ranging from “Building the Skills of the Future” to “Designing Sustainable Cities.”
Commenting on the annual meeting program, Ged Davis, managing director and head of the Center for Strategic Insight at the WEF, said: “The idea that the world is in transition is not new, but in 2007 we can see much more clearly the dimensions of change in technology, society, geopolitics and economics, and the consequences for business. It is our understanding of this change that underscores the theme of the Davos meeting: ‘The Shifting Power Equation.’ At the annual meeting we can explore the implications of these shifts. They are first addressed in update sessions and in the opening plenary, establishing priorities and proposing possible actions. They are further examined in plenary debate and interactive dialogue.”
