London This is the time of year when the world’s elites get together in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum.
The leaders who are avoiding the forum may be more telling than the large number of heads of state, lawmakers, and business titans who are expected to attend the four-day event in the Alpine resort.
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Several important leaders will not attend the forum at all, even though Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as president of the United States on Monday, is scheduled to speak via live video link on Thursday.
These include French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is the only head of state from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations—which includes the United States, Europe’s largest economies, Canada, and Japan—to attend the summit in person.
According to WEF, around 3,000 officials from more than 130 countries will come together for this year’s event, the 55th annual forum, which runs from Monday to Thursday. The meeting will highlight the vital need for communication in an era of growing uncertainty. According to the report, 350 government officials—60 of them are heads of state or government—will convene in Davos-Klosters to discuss urgent issues and mold new possibilities.
The event’s subject is Collaboration for the Intelligent Age, and its agenda centers on five main topics: rethinking growth, intelligent age industries, investing in people, protecting the environment, and restoring trust.
But not every international leader will be present to talk about these matters.
The keynote speakers from ten years ago—the leaders of Brazil, China, and India—are no longer present. Keir Starmer won’t be there because Russia hasn’t been invited for a few years. Jan Aart Scholte, a professor at Leiden University who specializes in global transitions and governance difficulties, told CNBC Thursday that Macron will not be present.
Although the Spanish prime minister and a few other leaders will be present, the heads of state and government present generally give the impression that they are not major actors. “If you look at a list of the G20, I believe there will be very few people attending,” he remarked.
Collective effort
Heads of state are known to stay at home to deal with urgent internal issues, such as political crises or slowing economic growth, however there is sometimes no formal explanation offered for this.
Attending an event that has been criticized for being upscale and out of touch has also caused some hesitancy in recent years.
The forum has made it clear time and time again that it offers a global, unbiased, non-profit platform for stakeholders from the business, government, academia, civil society, media, and arts sectors to come together.
It claims that these individuals band together to identify points of agreement and take advantage of chances for constructive change on significant worldwide concerns.
WEF said in a statement to CNBC on Monday that although it always appreciates the attendance of important world leaders, the effect and capacity to spur meaningful discussion and action at the Annual Meeting are determined by the combined efforts of a large and representative community.
The forum went on to say that this year’s agenda is intended to tackle the most important worldwide issues, such as technological advancement, economic disarray, and climate change.
We acknowledge that world leaders have many obligations and duties, and their absence does not lessen our continued interaction with their governments and organizations all year long, WEF continued.
Who will be there
This year’s summit, which started in 1971 under Klaus Schwab’s direction and was executive chairman until the beginning of this year, will still include a number of well-known figures.
This week, Argentine Prime Minister Javier Milei, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang are scheduled to speak at Davos.
Along with the leaders of international organizations including the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, and International Monetary Fund, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, will also be there.
In online comments, Sven Smit, a senior partner at strategic WEF partner McKinsey & Company, stated that it would be a top priority for attendees to comprehend the thoughts of the leaders present in Davos.
The intriguing element, according to Smit, is that while there are topics that individuals have suggested, ranging from sustainability to growth, it is impossible to totally forecast what will emerge as a Davos theme.
But in recent years, populist politicians like Trump and nations like China and Russia have pushed back against globalization, and many of the Western institutions present have been on the losing end of this trend.
Scholte pointed out that WEF has also been affected by this anti-establishment movement, and that although it may not have been popular in the past to have leaders like Trump attend, people now acknowledge that times have changed.
The proponents of a liberal, open global economy, he remarked, don’t seem to talk with as much contempt, let’s say, of opposing forces and viewpoints as they might have, say, prior to the global financial crisis.
No, it doesn’t always work, but I believe there’s a little more modesty than that. And no, we haven’t always given enough thought to people who feel left out of this.
He emphasized, however, that many political and commercial leaders continued to find WEF appealing.
According to Scholte, there are a number of signs that a venue such as the World Economic Forum isn’t as appealing as it may have been a few decades ago. However, I believe that the notion that it is no longer a magnet and that it lacks specific domains within global economic governance where it can still be extremely powerful is incorrect.