See the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 15, 2024.
Adam Galici | Price CNBC
LONDON – It’s that time of year when the great and the good gather at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
A number of heads of state, politicians and business leaders are expected to attend the four-day event at the Alpine resort – but what will make the most headlines are the leaders who are rejecting the meeting.
While Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as US President on Monday, is expected to address the forum via live video on Thursday, several key leaders will not be present at the event.
These include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian leader Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Among the developed countries of the Group of Seven (G7) – which includes the US, the largest economies in Europe, Canada and Japan – the only head of state present at the meeting is German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The WEF says this year’s event – the 55th annual conference, which runs from Monday to Thursday – will bring together nearly 3,000 leaders from more than 130 countries, with the conference “highlighting the importance of dialogue in an increasingly complex world.” It says that 350 heads of state, including 60 heads of state and government, “will gather in Davos-Klosters to solve the problems they face and to create opportunities to exit.”
People walk past a large screen during a speech by US President Donald Trump on January 26, 2018 at the Davos Congress Center (C), the venue for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), in the town of Davos, eastern Switzerland. / AFP PHOTO / MIGUEL MEDINA (Image credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)
Miguel Medina | Afp | Getty Images
The theme of the event is “Collaboration for the Smart Age,” and the agenda focuses on five main areas: rethinking growth, industry in the smart age, investing in people, protecting the planted and rebuilding trust.
Not all world leaders will be there to discuss these issues.
“The leaders of Brazil, China, India, who gave great speeches 10 years ago, are not there now. Russia has not been welcomed for several years now, Keir Starmer will not be there. Macron will not be there. “A Jan Aart Scholte, professor of global change and crisis of leadership at Leiden University, he told CNBC on Thursday.
“Of course, the prime minister of Spain will be there and there are several others, but the picture of the heads of state, the governments that are there is that they are not major players. I think if you go through the G20 list, there will be few (coming),” he said.
There is usually no good reason given for not participating in the WEF, but domestic problems – from economic recession to political crisis – are known to keep government leaders at home.
Xi Jinping, the president of China, speaks at the opening meeting of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017.
Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In recent years, there has also been controversy over attending an event that has been described as high-profile and unusual.
CNBC has contacted the WEF for comment. The conference has repeatedly stated that it provides a place where partners from business, government, academia, civil society, media and the arts “meet on an international, non-discriminatory, non-profit platform.”
These people, he says, “come together to find common ground and use opportunities for positive change in major global issues.”
Who will live there
A number of big names are still participating in this year’s event – an event that dates back to 1971 under the leadership of Klaus Schwab, who remained the event’s executive chairman until earlier this year.
Ding Xuexiang, the vice-premier of China, the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Javier Milei, the prime minister of Argentina and Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, are all scheduled to speak in Davos this week.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will also attend, as will the heads of international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.
Ursula von der Leyen reacts after being elected President of the European Commission for a second term, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 18, 2024.
Johanna Geron | Reuters
Sven Smit, senior partner at strategic WEF partner McKinsey & Company said in online comments that it will be important for the participants “to understand what is in the minds of the leaders who are in Davos.”
“You can’t predict, there are themes out there that people say, it goes from growth to sustainability, but what’s going to disrupt the Davos theme is not predictable and that’s the fun part,” Smit said.
However, many Western institutions that have attended, in recent years, have found themselves on the wrong side of the fight against globalization by leaders like Trump, and countries like Russia and China.
The WEF, too, fell in the wrong with this anti-establishment, Scholte said, and although the existence of leaders like Trump was not questioned in the past, now there is an acknowledgment that the world has changed.
“I don’t think the advocates of a free and open economy around the world are speaking as sarcastically about, say, power and counter-intuition as they would have done, say, before the global financial crisis,” he said.
“I think there’s a lot of humility that, no, sometimes it doesn’t work enough. And no, we’ve never thought enough about those who feel left out.”
Despite this, he emphasized that the WEF still attracts many business and political leaders.
“There are various signs that places like the World Economic Forum are not as magnetic as they were a few decades ago,” Scholte said. “But the idea that it’s no longer a magnet, and the idea that it doesn’t have other areas within the global economy where it can be very strong, I think that would be wrong.”
2025-01-20 07:36:55
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