WEF@Davos: Modi to address opening plenary

January 16, 2018 21:55

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the opening plenary at the World Economic Forum's Davos summit next week, while the keynote address will be given by United States President Donald Trump at the annual jamboree of the global elite to be attended by 70 state heads.

Besides, 38 heads of major international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as also nearly 2,000 CEOs including over 100 from India will be present at the five-day WEF Annual Meeting 2018, beginning on January 22 with a welcome reception to be hosted by India.

Announcing the official programme in Geneva today, the WEF said the summit will see the largest ever engagement of global leaders this year where the key talking points would include international security, environment and the global economy.

The theme of the meeting, spread over 400 sessions, would be 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World', while the meeting would also see the largest ever proportion of women leaders (21 per cent) including all co-chairs being women this time including social entrepreneur Chetna Sinha from India and IMF's Christine Lagarde, the WEF said.

Modi will be accompanied by six union ministers, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Piyush Goyal, Suresh Prabhu, Dharmendra Pradhan, M J Akbar and Jitendra Singh.

Besides, two chief ministers (Devendra Fadnavis and Chandrababu Naidu) and over 100 CEOs would take India's total presence to 129 -- the fourth highest after the US (780), the UK (266) and Switzerland (233 people). China will have 118 participants.

Women participants would account for 12 per cent of total Indian presence, compared to 27 per cent from the US, 24 per cent from the UK, 22 per cent from Germany, 20 per cent from Switzerland, 19 per cent for China and 18 per cent for France.

The WEF said its 48th Annual Meeting will focus on finding ways to reaffirm international cooperation on crucial shared interests, such as international security, the environment and the global economy.

The meeting comes at a time when geostrategic competition among states is generally seen to be on the rise.

Alongside international cooperation, an additional priority of the meeting will be to overcome divisions within countries, said the WEF which describes itself as an international public-private organisation focussed on

improving the state of the world.

The WEF said divisions have often been caused by breakdowns in the social contract as a result of failure to protect societies from the transformational impacts of a succession of shocks, from globalisation to the proliferation of social media and the birth of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"Collectively, these shocks have caused a loss of trust in institutions and damaged the relationship between business and society," it added. -- PTI

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