Prime Minister Modi to host global CEOs at 'Davos of the East'

Invitations have been sent to former US President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Christine Lagarade, Jeff Bezos, Michael Dell & Mark Zuckerberg

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In what can be seen as a bid to portray Narendra Modi as a emerging world leader, the Prime Minister will play host to the chief executive officers (CEOs) of Fortune 500 companies from across the globe in January next year.

Invitations for the first-time Global CEO Conclave — to be hosted as part of the seventh edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit on January 11 — has already been sent to about 150 personalities and organisations like former US President Bill Clinton; Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; World Bank president Jim Yong Kim; International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarade; Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao; General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt; Amazon founder, chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos; Michael Dell, CEO, Dell Corporation; Mary T. Barra; CEO, General Motors Virginia Rometty; chairperson, IBM, Jonathan Lu; CEO, Alibaba Group; and Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO, Facebook Inc, among others.

Confirmations to the event, already being touted as the ‘Davos of the East’, is expected from next week. If things fall in place, the Prime Minister could also host dinner for the global CEOs and leaders.

The Prime Minister will also meet and address world leaders from the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, the Asean, the ADB and the Bill Clinton Foundation, apart from Nobel laureates and economists. The conclave will be held at the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University in Gandhinagar, right after the inaugural session of Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015.

The conclave would be held immediately after the inaugural ceremony of the summit. On the following two days — January 12 and 13 — country and state seminars, apart from B2B meetings as well as theme-based seminars such as one on SMEs, international finance, smart cities, sustainable energy and world innovation, will be held. Investments, however, will not be the primary focus of the conclave. Instead international issues such as climate change, sustainable development and new millennium goals for corporations and governments alike will be discussed.

The Gujarat government is also working on setting up a specific theme for the conclave.

“We shall not focus on investments for the Global CEO Conclave. It will be an extension to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. For the first time, we will provide a global platform like Davos for the PM to interact with world leaders. We have also requested the PM to host the dinner for global leaders after the conclave. We are waiting for his approval,” said a senior officer of the Gujarat government.  

Mooted by Modi about three to four months ago, the conclave got a nod from the PMO only on October 31, following which invitations been sent out.

According to the government official, while the previous Vibrant Gujarat Summits were global business platforms, the one next year will no more be a place for investments.

“We want the event to emerge as a platform to discuss global issues. We are portraying it as the Davos of the East,” the officer stated.

Davos is a mountain resort in the Alps region of Switzerland. It hosts the annual winter meeting of World Economic Forum, which is attended by thousands of business and political leaders, along with journalists and intellectuals. International issues like health and environment are discussed. Earlier, as the chief minister of Gujarat, Modi had described the Vibrant Gujarat Summit as “Davos in action”.