World Economic Forum - January 2025

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The next meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) will be held as usual in the Swiss ski resort town of Basel from 20 January to 24 January 2025.

What is the World Economic Forum ? 

The WEF is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and is an international not-for-profit organization focused on promoting cooperation between the public and private sectors. It was founded in 1971 by German economist Klaus Schwab, and the forum seeks to "foster a spirit of collaborative entrepreneurship to address global issues and shape governmental, industry, and social agendas".

Who attends the WEF  ? 

Some 2,500 delegates and hundreds of other participants, observers and groups gather in Davos during this period and consequently the WEF claims "..it is possibly the largest assembly of global decision makers each year". The WEF describes its attendees as a "highly curated group of delegates from global business, government, civil society, media and academia who converge on Davos to address the most pressing issues of the day and ultimately develop solutions". "Curated" is itself a very unusual term to describe an an ïnvitation-only" event.  

What is the agenda for the January 2025 WEF ?

The WEF has published the theme for Davos as being “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age” with the program to be oriented around five interconnected priorities:

• Reimagining growth. Given today’s geopolitical and economic realities, policy makers will need to look toward new sources of growth for the future. The digital economy already accounts for nearly 16 percent of global GDP and could form the basis for up to 70 percent of all new value created in the global economy over the next decade.

• Industries in the intelligent age. Technology is now the primary driver of change and disruption across business sectors. To take full advantage of the plethora of opportunities, leaders will need a new tool kit to help themselves, and their organizations, adapt.

• Investing in people. Technological advancements have created the need to reskill and upskill people to meet the demands of tomorrow’s economy.

• Safeguarding the planet. Partnerships and dialogues that enable investment and deployment of new climate technologies are critical to making progress on global climate and nature-related goals. A scaling up of ambition, governance, partnerships, and capital will be necessary to achieve net zero.

• Rebuilding trust. As the pace of change accelerates, societal divides have deepened as people around the world seek to reaffirm their identities. To move forward, stakeholders will need to find new ways to collaborate—both internationally and within their own societies.

The WEF is essentially a meeting of key economic leaders, organisations and ''drivers'' of economic and social activity.  It could be best described as a private sector/non government version of formal government forums such as the G7 or G20 or a form of capitalist mega think tank. The Davos WEF however cannot negotiate or manage global wide treaties, agreements or trade relationships as it does not have that role nor power. It has often been seen as quite exclusive and elitist despite its stated intention.