Chinese President to open first virtual Davos Forum

The President of China, Xi Jinping, will inaugurate the first virtual Davos Economic Forum, which will be held next week, on the same dates as the usual edition of this leaders' summit, and whose face-to-face version has been moved to Singapore in May. 

The founder and executive director of the World Economic Forum, the organiser of the well-known annual meeting in Davos, Klaus Schwab, announced today that in addition to Xi, the president of South Korea and the prime ministers of India and Japan will take part in the telematic debates scheduled for 25 to 29 May. 

The main powers of Asia, the continent where the pandemic began but which has suffered the least from it in both human and economic terms, will thus be represented. 

This continent accounts for half the world's population and half the gross global product, comparable in the latter case to what China and the United States would represent together. 

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, will also be one of the keynote speakers at the so-called "Davos Agenda", an event with which the World Economic Forum maintains its reputation for organising the first major informal summit every year, which for half a century has brought together economic and political leaders from all over the world. 

In recent years, social leaders, environmental defenders and cultural representatives have joined them at the Davos Forum, and have found a new space to make their messages heard on this platform. 

In a press conference also online, Schwab said today that with the world still in the grip of the covid-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to "rethink priorities, rebuild trust and improve global cooperation". 

"This unique meeting will be an opportunity for leaders to set out their visions and address the most important issues of our time, such as the need to accelerate job creation and protect the environment," he said. 

According to the creator of the Davos Forum, 2021 will be a decisive year for regaining the confidence lost due to the consequences of the pandemic, particularly in the hardest hit areas of the planet. 

One of these is Europe, which will be represented on the "Davos Agenda" by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. 

Once again the presidents of Colombia, Iván Duque, and Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, will take part in the event from their capitals, while the Argentinean Alberto Fernández will speak for the first time. 

They will be joined by ten economy, finance and foreign affairs ministers and central bank governors, the organisers said. 

One of the Forum's managing directors, Saadia Zahidi, said her analyses show that future employment opportunities will be in the technology, green economy, education and care sectors. 

For this to happen "we have to see where economic growth comes from in the future and how we can shape it, that people have the education and skills to go to those jobs and that those jobs are fair and affordable," she said. 

The new U.S. Administration will be represented by President Joe Biden's special envoy for climate change, former Secretary of State John Kerry, in a sign of the attention he plans to give to this phenomenon. 

Following next week's virtual discussions, the World Economic Forum will continue to prepare for its big annual meeting which will take place this year at the end of May in Singapore. 

The organisers have declined to organise the event in Switzerland because of the spread of the coronavirus in this country and the rest of Europe, and because it is impossible to anticipate the situation in the coming months.