ISLAMABAD: The 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum has kicked off in Davos, Switzerland, Radio Pakistan reported on Tuesday, with Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar representing Pakistan at the global conference.
The meeting takes place as the global economy faces a year of subdued growth prospects and uncertainty stemming from geopolitical strife, tight financing conditions and the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence, according to an annual survey of top economists conducted each year ahead of the WEF meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos and released on Monday.
“The Prime Minister will attend three key thematic events: Preventing an Era of Global Conflicts, Restoring Faith in the Global System and Preventing Economic Fracture,” Radio Pakistan reported. “He will deliver a keynote address on the theme Trade, Tax, Trillion Dollar Promise.”
Kakar is also expected to hold meetings with government and business leaders on the sidelines of the forum, which will go on until Friday.
A press photographer works next to the logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the opening of their annual meeting in Davos on January 15, 2024. (AFP)
Over 60 heads of state and government, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, are attending Davos this year to hold both public appearances and closed-door talks. They will be be among more than 2,800 attendees, including academics, artists and international organization leaders.
The gathering is a venue to connect decision-makers in an array of fields and industries but is often panned by critics as an emblem of the yawning gap between the rich and the poor: Young Swiss Socialists staged a rally Sunday to blast the forum and brand attendees as “the richest and most powerful, who are responsible for today’s wars and crises.”
While Davos is generally big picture, regional conflict can cast a long shadow, as the war in Ukraine did a year ago, prompting organizers to exclude any Russian delegation. This year, Israel’s three-month war in Gaza, plus US and British airstrikes on Houthi militants in Yemen who have fired missiles into Red Sea shipping lanes, are looming large.
Herzog, the Israeli president, whose job is more ceremonial than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s, will be on hand for a Davos session Thursday, and the prime ministers of Qatar, Jordan and Lebanon also will be attending. A “humanitarian briefing on Gaza” session gets a half-hour slot Tuesday.
