VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an independent, international organisation incorporated as a non-profit foundation in 1971. It was called the European Management Forum until 1987.
It comprises some 1,000 large companies and organisations from over 50 countries, including about 20 from Russia. Membership is reviewed annually on the basis of fiscal condition, the quality of management and reputation.
German-born Klaus Schwab, then Professor of business policy at the University of Geneva, founded the Forum and has since been its Executive Chairman. The Managing Board acts as its executive body.
The Forum has a number of groups or professional communities of member and partner companies, including the International Business Council, the Labour Leaders Community, Thought Leaders, and research leaders. Forum communities include the Young Global Leaders and the Technology Pioneers.
The Forum's budget is made up of annual membership fees and partnership fees from Strategic Partners (companies that play a leading role in the Forum) and from the participants in the Forum's events.
It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Forum's goal is to facilitate the solution of global economic development problems and to promote international trade and economic cooperation.
The Forum operates through meetings, conferences and symposia attended by Forum members and invited guests (politicians, businessmen, scientists and journalists). No final documents are approved, with roundtables attended by several "star" guests as the preferred and time-tested forms of interaction, as well as "brainstorms" stipulating informal exchange of opinion on key problems by groups of 10-15 participants.
The Forum events include:
1. The Annual Meeting in Davos (usually held in late January or early February and lasting up to six days), the main event where the WEF members discuss key problems of the global economy.
Up to 2,000 state, political, research and business leaders from many countries are invited to the meetings, which are divided into mini-summits attended by statesmen, as well as seminars designed mostly to encourage interaction between businessmen and official delegations or individual politicians.
The Forum's high status is the reason its organisers are introducing harsher criteria for selecting participants in the Davos meeting, which continues to gain more of an elite event. Since 1994, business people must be members of the Forum to be able to attend the meetings in Davos. WEF members pay annual fees (the amount determined during talks with WEF leadership) spent on the organisation of the Forum's events.
2. Regional summits, attended by members of governments and business of a given region and their trade and financial partners from other regions. These summits comprise the European Economic Summit in Salzburg; summits in China and India; the East Asia Economic Summit; the Southern Cone summit (Mercosur); the annual conference in the United States; and the Eurasia Economic Summit (Almaty, April 2002).
3. National (country) meetings, two-day seminars and symposiums of businessmen and members of government (100-150 people). The Forum annually holds up to 30 such events.
4. Unofficial meetings of members of government and leading companies representing different industries (industry-specific summits). In the past, these meetings have focused on power generation, engineering, automobile manufacturing, agriculture, the food industry, and the media. The Forum annually holds up to 10 such events.
Russia
Russia started cooperating with the Forum in 1986, when Nikolai Ryzhkov addressed the Davos meeting in a televised linkup. Since 1987, Russian delegations have attended all the annual meetings in Davos. Until 1993, delegations from the former Soviet Union and Russia were led by the heads of the leading ministries and departments. In 1992, the Russian delegation presented an address from President Boris Yeltsin. In 1993, 1994, 1997 and 1998, the Davos meetings were attended by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.
In 1994-1995, the Forum held several visiting meetings in Moscow, St Petersburg and Nizhni Novgorod.
At the initiative of the Forum, the Middle East/North Africa Summit was held in Casablanca in October-November 1994 to discuss multilateral cooperation in the Middle East. It was chaired by Russia and the United States as co-sponsors of the Middle East peace process.
On January 21-25, 2004, the 34th Annual Meeting in Davos was held under the theme of "Partnership for Security and Prosperity." It discussed global security, encouragement of global economic growth, new challenges and threats, improvement of corporate governance, encouragement of innovation, etc. The Russian delegation was led by Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
The Creative Imperative meeting in Davos on January 25-29, 2006, highlighted the development of India and China, creation of jobs, strengthening of trust in state and private institutions, and effective leadership in the fight against global challenges. The Russian delegation, which attended the Forum, was led by Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref.
The Davos summit held on January 24-25, 2007, "The Shifting Power Equation," considered ways to fight poverty in Africa, settlement in the Middle East, and the reform of the global financial system. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev led the Russian delegation.
The Annual Meeting held on January 23-27, 2008 was titled "The Power of Collaborative Innovation" and focused on sustainable development of the global financial system, the economic situation in the United States, and assistance to innovation-driven economic sectors. The Russian delegation was led by Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
On the whole, the Forum is a highly respected, non-governmental, international economic organisation. Its meetings are more important than any other meetings in terms of their status, attendance and influence on the intellectual environment in the world's business community.
Address:
World Economic Forum
91-93 route de la Capite
CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva, Switzerland
Telephone: +41 (0) 22 869 1212
Fax: +41 (0) 22 786 2744
E-mail: contact@weforum.org
Official website: www.weforum.org
WEF Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab
WEF Managing Director Frederic Sicre
