It is only the second time the event, known informally as Davos after the Swiss ski resort where it is usually held every January, will be hosted outside Switzerland since its inception in 1971, and mark its debut in Asia.
“The World Economic Forum will convene the Special Annual Meeting 2021 in Singapore from 13-16 May. It will return to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, for the Annual Meeting 2022,” the organizers said in a statement, released a day earlier than planned after Reuters reported the news.
WEF president Borge Brende said in an internal email seen by Reuters that health and safety concerns linked to the current COVID-19 outbreak in Europe made it impossible to organize the meeting in Lucerne-Buergenstock as initially planned, while Singapore had been successful in dealing with the pandemic.
“After careful consideration, and in light of the current situation with regards to COVID-19 cases, it was decided that Singapore was best placed to hold the meeting,” organizers said.
They had already decided in October to shift the annual meeting to Buergenstock in central Switzerland from the harder-to-get-to Alpine resort of Davos.
Moving the meeting to Singapore, the Southeast Asian financial hub and known as the Switzerland of Asia, will allow an in-person meeting, the “first global leadership event to address worldwide recovery from the pandemic”, organizers added.
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