WEF Annual Meet 2022 starts May 22 in Davos; Sitharaman, 3 CMs to attend

The WEF Annual Meeting 2022 will be held in Davos from May 22 to May 26 after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19 pandemic

The World Economic Forum (WEF) will hold its Annual Meeting 2022 in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos from May 22-26 as the first global in-person leadership event since the start of the pandemic.

The theme of the WEF Annual Meeting 2022 will be "Working Together, Restoring Trust", said the Geneva-based organisation.

The annual meeting was earlier scheduled to start in January but had to be deferred due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. 

The WEF, which has been holding its annual meeting in Davos for over 50 years, said the next Davos summit will offer world leaders an opportunity to take stock of the state of the world and shape partnerships and policies for the crucial period ahead.

Topics on the agenda will include the following:

• Pandemic recovery
• Tackling climate change
• Building a better future for work
• Accelerating stakeholder capitalism
• Harnessing the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

"After all the virtual meetings taking place in the last two years, leaders from politics, business and civil society have to convene finally in person again. We need to establish the atmosphere of trust that is truly needed to accelerate collaborative action and to address the multiple challenges we face," said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, WEF,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the WEF's online Davos Agenda summit in January. Other than Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his Karnataka counterpart Basavaraj S Bommai as well as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy are expected to be in Davos for the meeting.

At least 100 Indian CEOs, as well as hundreds of business and political leaders from across the world have already registered for the WEF 2022 five-day event.

These include Adani Group's Gautam Adani, Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani and his two children Isha and Akash, Bajaj Finserv's Sanjiv Bajaj, Aditya Birla Group's Kumar Mangalam Birla, Tata Sons' N Chandrasekaran, Axis Bank's Amitabh Chaudhry, HCL Tech's Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Infosys's Salil Parekh, Serum Institute's Adar Poonawalla, Wipro's Rishad Premji, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, ReNew Power's Sumant Sinha and Tata Steel's T V Narendran.

The WEF said it will continue to communicate closely with the Swiss government on the public health situation in Switzerland and the annual meeting will take place as long as all necessary conditions are in place to guarantee the health and safety of its participants.

During the online Davos Agenda 2022, heads of state and government and international organisations shared their priorities for a challenging year ahead. They joined leaders from business and civil society and spoke on the global economic outlook, inequality, healthy futures, climate and resilience.