WEF forced to postpone Singapore meeting to August

Local transmission of Covid-19 in Singapore remained at negligible levels, according to the WEF Keystone / Wallace Woon

The World Economic Forum’s special annual meeting – exceptionally being held in Singapore this year – has been pushed back by three months. The WEF conference will now convene from August 17-20.

The coronavirus pandemic forced WEF to relocate its flagship event from the Swiss mountain resort of Davos to the Southeast Asian city state. It will be only the second time in 50 years that it will be staged outside Davos.

The 51st annual meeting of business, political and civil society leaders will now take place in Singapore between August 17-20 instead of May 25-28, WEF announced on Wednesday.

The meeting follows the success of the forum’s virtual Davos Agenda in January.

The WEF said in a statementExternal link that although the forum and the government of Singapore remained confident of the measures in place to ensure a safe and effective meeting, and local transmission of Covid-19 in Singapore remained at negligible levels, “the change to the meeting’s timing reflects the international challenges in containing the pandemic”.

Current global travel restrictions had made planning difficult for an in-person meeting in the first half of the year, it added. “Furthermore, differing quarantine and air transport regulations have increased the lead time necessary to ensure that participants globally can make arrangements to join.”

“A global leadership summit needs the participation of all global stakeholders,” said Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman.