Singapore to host World Economic Forum instead of Switzerland amid coronavirus concerns

Name: Coronavirus: Volunteers in Singapore help the vulnerable
Uploaded: 2020-12-07T16:00:43.000Z
Duration: 1 min 50 s
Description: Coronavirus: Volunteers in Singapore help the vulnerable

The annual meeting normally takes place in Davos, but organisers decided to postpone it to May and move it because of European Covid-19 safety concerns

WEF president Borge Brende said Singapore has been ‘successful’ in dealing with the pandemic

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The Merlion statue in Singapore’s Marina Bay. The city state will host the World Economic Forum in place of Switzerland in May. Photo: AP

Reuters

Published: 12:00am, 8 Dec 2020Updated: 8:50pm, 8 Dec 2020

The World Economic Forum (WEF) will be held in Singapore instead of Switzerland next year as the Covid-19 pandemic would make it difficult to ensure the health and safety of participants in Europe, WEF organisers said on Monday.

“The World Economic Forum will convene the Special Annual Meeting 2021 in Singapore from May 13-16. It will return to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, for the Annual Meeting 2022,” the organisers 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 situation in Europe made it impossible to organise 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,” organisers said.

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Coronavirus: Volunteers in Singapore help the vulnerable

They had already decided in October to move the annual meeting of world political and business leaders to Buergenstock in central Switzerland from the hard-to-get-to ski resort Davos that has hosted the high-profile event since the early 1970s.