The World Economic Forum will hold its 2021 annual meeting in Singapore instead of its traditional home of Switzerland, which is battling a high number of coronavirus infections.
The annual meeting will be held in Singapore May 13 to 16 and return to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland in 2022, the World Economic Forum said. The meeting will also include a virtual component to allow greater participation, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Singapore was chosen because it has a relatively low rate of Covid-19 cases. It also hosted Singapore International Energy Week in October. Earlier this year the World Economic Forum had said it would move the location of its 2021 meeting within Switzerland to the resort of Bürgenstock.
Switzerland is fighting a surge in infections and had about 54,000 new cases in the last two weeks, almost as many as Singapore has reported since the outbreak began.
“The Special Annual Meeting 2021 will be a place for leaders from business, government and civil society to meet in person for the first time since the start of the global pandemic,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.
In years past, the WEF’s annual meeting has attracted political leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as a parade of billionaires, executives and celebrities to debate global challenges.
Singapore’s economy has gradually re-opened since mid-June, with daily cases dwindling in recent weeks to low single digits or even zero. That came after the government rolled out strict measures to stop the spread of the virus, such as implementing a partial lockdown for two months.
Singapore has been pushing forward with re-opening its meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions sector, known as MICE. The city-state since Oct. 1 has accepted applications for conventions that could host as many as 250 people, with certain restrictions.
Its pandemic-era approach to large-scale business meetings got a test run during the energy event in October. Attendees at the conference, held at the Marina Bay Sands hotel in the city’s center, were required to take a rapid Covid-19 test, with results within 30 minutes, and download a contact-tracing app.
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