World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-profit foundation that is primarily known for the annual meeting it organizes, which takes place every year in Davos. At this meeting in the modern Davos Congress Center, leading international economic experts, politicians, intellectuals and media professionals come together to discuss the most current issues facing the world. The Forum organizes various other meetings throughout the year and publishes research reports. It now has regional offices in Beijing and New York.

The role of the WEF, founded in 1971 by economics professor Klaus Schwab, is always impartial, as it is not tied to any political or national interests. The organization has observer status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Its highest oversight body is the Board of Trustees, whose members include Tony Blair and Queen Rania of Jordan. The forum's mission is to "improve the state of the world."

The flagship event of the World Economic Forum is the annual meeting with over 3000 participants, which takes place in Davos every year at the end of January. At the same time, many informal meetings take place in Davos - also due to the village atmosphere of the place. The much-quoted "Spirit of Davos" is by no means a ghost. In fact, it is one of the reasons for Davos' success as a conference city. Up here at 1560 m above sea level, nature is the main protagonist despite the urban infrastructure. It gives the conference participants the feeling of being only a small part of the whole. And it is precisely this atmosphere that repeatedly makes it possible to find compromises and solutions that would have been unthinkable elsewhere.

The discussions in the official program cover important issues of global importance such as international trade barriers, conflicts, poverty and environmental problems, as well as possible solutions. Dozens of heads of state and government from around the world attend the WEF's annual meeting. Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bono, Paulo Coelho and Tony Blair are also regular guests in Davos. Henry Kissinger, Nelson Mandela and Yasser Arafat have attended previous annual meetings.

In 1971, Klaus Schwab, then professor of corporate policy at the University of Geneva, invited 444 executives from Western European companies to the first "European Management Symposium," which took place in the Davos Congress Center. Under the patronage of the European Commission, Prof. Schwab intended to familiarize European companies with management practices in the United States. To this end, he founded the "European Management Forum" as a non-profit foundation based in Geneva and invited leading European business representatives to the annual meeting in Davos every January.

The European Management Forum changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987 and subsequently sought to broaden its vision and develop into a platform for resolving international conflicts. Since then, leading politicians have used Davos as a neutral platform. The "Davos Declaration", which stopped Greece and Turkey from starting a war at the last minute, was signed by these two countries in Davos in 1988. At the annual meeting in 1992, South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk, Nelson Mandela and Mangosuthu Buthelezi appeared together outside Africa for the first time. At the annual meeting in 1994, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed a draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho.