The World Economic Forum has decided to postpone its 2022 annual meeting of world leaders, billionaires, and executives in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos, Switzerland, in view of the new coronavirus variant Omicron.
In a statement issued Monday, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said the pandemic and existing restrictions on travel and movement “make it extremely difficult to deliver a global in-person meeting”.
The annual meeting, which was set to take place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland between January 17 & 21, 2022, has been deferred to mid-2022.
“The World Economic Forum will defer its Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in the light of continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak,” the group said in a release Monday. “It is now planned for early summer.”
“The deferral of the Annual Meeting will not prevent progress through the continued digital convening of leaders from business, government and civil society,” Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF said. “Public-private cooperation has moved forward throughout the pandemic and that will continue apace. We look forward to bringing global leaders together in person soon.”
This is the second consecutive year that the Davos summit has been deferred over Covid fears; in February last year, the WEF said it would be postponed by several months.
It was also rescheduled to be held in Singapore.
“Despite the meeting’s stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary… the health and safety of everyone involved in physical meetings – participants, collaborators, and the host community – have always been the Forum’s priority,” the WEF statement said.
Participants will instead join a headline series of ‘State of the World’ sessions bringing together global leaders online to focus on shaping solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.
