WEF is back after two years and pandemic-related curbs are still intact

Tulips and meadows have replaced snow banks and ski slopes at the World Economic Forum at Davos-Klosters, which is being held in summer for the first time in its 51-year history. The global Forum, which is usually held in the third week of January, was cancelled in 2021 and postponed from January to May this year because of the pandemic-related travel restrictions.The pandemic continued to cast its shadow with fewer delegates and strict protocols for protection from infection.

Delegates had to upload proof of primary and booster vaccination, an RT-PCR negative test result taken 72 hours before arrival, and get tested once after arrival to continue participation in the Forum events. Interestingly, this is a WEF requirement not the government of Switzerland.  Clearly, WEF doesn't want to take an iota of risk in the age of pandemic.

After a two-year pandemic-enforced hiatus from the Swiss ski resort, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum just isn’t going to be the same.

The guest list is hundreds of names shorter, with many titans of finance conspicuously absent. The chiefs of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. aren’t going. Neither is BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink or Steve Schwarzman, the private-equity billionaire.

Also missing is the usual contingent of superwealthy Russian tycoons -- several who attended in 2020 are now sanctioned -- and many of their Chinese counterparts.

Even the timing and weather are off: Instead of the usual snow and crisp January air, the forecast for the May Davos is rain. (The WEF included umbrellas rather than crampons in the welcome pack for delegates.)

The lingering pandemic, rampant inflation, tumbling stock markets and the war in Ukraine mark a bleak backdrop for the five-day event.

With inputs from Bloomberg