World Economic Forum (WEF) Background:

In 2007, a Swiss non-profit organisation approved the creation of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is also known as the Annual Meeting of the New Champions or the Summer Davos. The event takes place annually and the 2017 WEF is held in our North-Eastern Chinese city, Dalian between the 27^th of June and the 29^th of June. The Summer Davos is held annually in China altering between Dalian and Tianjin. The Summer Davos has around 2000 participants from the Global Growth Companies foundation, which is generally made up of emerging countries with rapid growth, such as China, Russia, Mexico, Brazil and India, but there are also several developed countries involved in the foundation. WEF is a community with members from around 90 countries, involving governments, leaders of major multinationals, civil society, media and academic individuals. WEF’s annual meetings include not only members of the foundation, but also fast-growing regions, global leaders, international technology leaders and competitive cities.

The effects of the Summer Davos WEF in Dalian is noticeable in various areas. There are large number of reconstruction of buildings and roads in the city and increased security measures everywhere in the city center. The number of both international and domestic visitors increased during the week of the WEF. Therefore, most of the flights and hotels are already booked out. The media and press pays increased attention on the happenings and events in Dalian. The World Economic Forum along with many other internationally known events help Dalian to gain international recognition and to become one of the globally known Chinese cities. This enlarged international acceptance will benefit Dalian, by becoming the host of other international events, undergo further projects and turn into a new international trading center of China.

Aims of the 2017 Summer World Economic Forum (WEF): 

The main focuses of this year’s World Economic Forum meeting will involve the sharing and circular economy, new technology innovations and green investment to improve environmental management. By discussing these topics, the WEF members try to address the global environmental risks, facing all countries around the world. These possible environmental risks were pointed out in the latest annual Global Risks Report of the committee. Climate change, sustainable growth and environmental protection are the prime discussion cases during the 2017 Summer Davos meeting in Dalian. The WEF committee plans to centralise their concern on the climate change issue, which is one of the most impactful risk and therefore a vital problem, affecting all members of the WEF as well as other countries around the world.

One of the reasons for keeping this year’s Summer Davos meeting in China is because China plays an extremely important role as world leader in sustainable and green development. In 2016, the world’s biggest issuer of green bonds was the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank. However, China is facing environmental challenges, including smog, which is becoming a major issue in most metropolitan cities around the world. Therefore, the 2017 Summer Davos meeting’s top priority focus will be on solving environmental issues, such as smog, in order to improve the urban air quality of populous cities.

The WEF committee believes that global cooperation can be created between public and private sectors in order to create new alliances and counter the existing environmental issues and prevent the rise of further environmental problems in the future. By establishing cooperation between firms in the public and private sectors, the members of the WEF assume that they can demonstrate collaborations, instead of isolation, to the younger generation and attain benefits to all in the future.

Further plans that the members propose to carry out after the 2017 WEF meeting, include investment in green energy, green infrastructure, green transportation and they believe that having a circular economy is fundamental to raise the level of economic growth. Furthermore, China’s goal is to highlight the idea of sustainability and innovation alongside with strong Chinese characteristics and an international appeal. The annual World Economic Forum helps to unite the existing and new fast-growing organisations, which shape the future of business and society. It is an event that highlights relevant global challenges from economic, societal, environmental and political backgrounds, and encourages its members to act in a way that will benefit to everyone in the long run.

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