Over the course of three decades, the
Forum has grown from humble beginnings as a European economic
conference into a unique, member-based institution comprised
of the 1,000 most powerful corporations in the world.
Beginning as a simple gathering in the
Swiss Alps, the Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos has become the
premier gathering of world leaders in business, government and
civil society to address the issues and challenges confronting
humanity.
2000-1990
2000 The Forum holds its 30th Annual Meeting in
Davos.
1998 The Africa
Competitiveness Report is published for the first time. This
new study undertaken on a region's competitiveness is based on
the model of the successful Global Competitiveness Report. It
is the first comprehensive competitiveness study on the
African continent.
Creation of
the Business Consultative Council, a group of over 30 heads of
business associations from around the world and heads of
several United Nations bodies meet for the first time in Davos
at the Annual Meeting. This innovative initiative of the World
Economic Forum offers the UN the support of business and aims to install a
permanent relationship between the business community and the
UN system.
The Forum moves
into its new headquarters at
91-93 route de la Capite, 1223 Cologny/Geneva,
Switzerland.
1996 The theme of
the Annual Meeting in Davos is "Sustaining Globalization," and
worldwide attention focuses on Davos as the centre of a
growing debate, initiated by an editorial, written by the
foundation's president and managing director, published in the
International Herald Tribune and widely cited in other media.
The first Central and Eastern
European Economic Summit is held in Salzburg, under the
patronage of Austrian President Thomas Klestil. Attended by
all the relevant heads of state and government, in addition to
a significant group of business leaders, the meeting creates a
new identity for this region inside the larger European
framework.
The foundation
publishes its Global Competitiveness Report. The report is highly valued by governments
worldwide as a benchmark for their own performance. The
foundation recognizes its responsibility in this area and
brings back the report under its sole control. Jeffrey Sachs,
Director of the Harvard Institute for international
Development, is co-chairman of the Report's Advisory Board.
The Council of the World
Economic Forum meets for the first time at the Annual Meeting
in Davos. The World Economic Forum integrates its Foundation members in
the decision-making process via the Council, which is made up
of some 40 eminent representatives from member companies. They
meet twice a year.
1995 The foundation
holds its 25th Annual Meeting in Davos.
The foundation takes members on a Special Trip to
the Greater Mekong Subregion, creating a new identity and new
forms of cooperation in this rapidly developing growth area.
The Forum has actively
promoted the integration of Latin America into the world
economy for many years, and in 1995 the first Mercosur
Economic Summit is held in Sao Paulo. The Summit is
instrumental in overcoming a crisis situation (an automotive
trade dispute between Argentina and Brazil) which threatens
the existence of this newly emerging economic region. On the
occasion of the second Summit in Buenos Aires (1996), Chile
formally joins the regional trade group (Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Paraguay and Umguay) as an associate member.
1994 The foundation
welcomes its 1,000th member.
The first Middle East/North Africa Economic Summit
in Casablanca is convened by the World Economic Forum in
partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations, under the
presidency of King Hassan II of Morocco. The Casablanca
Declaration produced at the Summit proposes numerous concrete
mechanisms to support the peace process in the Middle East and
to launch the concept of a Middle East/North Africa economic
community.
1993 The first
Southern Africa Economic Summit takes place and is followed by
a second in June 1994, coinciding with the emergence of the
first democratic Government of National Unity in South Africa.
The foundation launches the
Industry Summit outside the Annual Meeting in Davos, to serve
particularly entrepreneurial "Global Growth Companies". The
first Industry Summit is organized in Cambridge Massachusetts
in cooperation with MIT and Harvard University; the 1994
Summit takes place in Palo Alto, hosted by Stanford
University, and with the collaboration of Caltech and the
University of California, Berkeley. The cooperation of the
world's leading universities ensures the latest
technology-research and knowledge-oriented input into the
activities of the foundation.
In order to reinforce the club character of its
networks, the foundation limits its activities to members and
to their special guests only.
The foundation starts the concept of Forum Fellows
nominating some 300 top experts in the political, economic,
social, cultural and technological fields as pertinent
advisers and contributors to its activities.
The Informal Gathering of
Editorialists and Commentators is created to provide the media
with its own networks and with the opportunity to interact
intensively with the other constituents of the Forum.
1992 The foundation
initiates the annual Europe/East Asia Economic Summit with the
objective to strengthen economic and business links between
the two regions. The first meeting in Hong Kong gathers 400
participants; it is followed by a second in Hong Kong in 1993
and a third Summit in Singapore in 1994 attended by over 600
participants. Calls were made there for a meeting on the level
of European/East Asian heads of government to be held in 1995,
creating between Asia and Europe an APEC-type organization.
The foundation creates a new
network, Global Leaders for Tomorrow, composed of young leaders from business,
politics, academia, the arts and the media, all of whom are
under 43 when chosen and are already well established through
their achievements and their positions of influence. The first
200 Global Leaders for Tomorrow are appointed, to be followed
by another 100 each year. The network provides an additional
source of forward-looking ideas and initiatives.
The foundation sponsors the
creation of a sister foundation, the World Arts Forum, which
convenes 200 artistic and cultural leaders from all over the
world to a special meeting in Venice, Italy; based on this
experience and contacts, the foundation integrates a stronger
cultural and artistic dimension into all its activities. From
1995 onwards, it awards a prize (the Crystal Award) to
personalities who, in addition to having made a real
difference in the world of arts, have also made an outstanding
contribution to cross-cultural understanding.
1990-1980
1990 The foundation
launches in Davos an unprecedented All-European Summit of
heads of state and government, followed by substantial
activities to integrate Central and Eastern European countries
and the former USSR into the world
economy.
1988 World Link
magazine is launched, covering
global business and economic issues for 35,000 decision-makers
worldwide, increasing the foundation's publishing activity.
The foundation has played a
role in major reconciliation processes in the world, with the
first of these initiatives in 1988. Examples are:
- Greece and Turkey - after being at the brink of war, signing of
the "Davos Declaration" between Prime Ministers Papandreou
and Ozal, Davos 1988;
- Korea -
both Koreas meet for the first time for discussions at
ministerial level at the Annual Meeting, Davos 1989;
- Germany
- German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and East German Prime
Minister Hans Modrow meet, accelerating significantly the
process of German reunification, Davos 1990;
- East Asia - bilateral contacts lead to the normalization
of relations with Vietnam, Davos 1990;
- South Africa - the first private meeting of all political
constituencies of South Africa is held in the Forum's
headquarters in Geneva in 1990; the first joint appearance
outside South Africa of F.W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela and
Chief Buthelezi brought new impetus to the political
transition, Davos 1992;
- Middle East - Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and PLO
Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a viable draft agreement on
Gaza and Jericho, moving forward on the road to peace in the
Middle East, Davos 1994.
1987 In order to
reflect its increasingly global outlook, the name of the
foundation is changed to World Economic Forum.
Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Germany's Foreign
Minister delivers his famous "Let's give Gorbachev a chance"
speech at the Annual Meeting in Davos. This is considered by
many historians to mark the beginning of the end of the Cold
War.
1985 Regular
meetings begin in India, which have a substantial impact on
the opening-up of the country. Concrete proposals made by
business participants are taken into account by the government
in shaping its policy.
1983 Governors Meetings, integrating the chief executive
officers of the world's most important corporations, are
created in specific industry sectors. These "CEO clubs" add an
industry orientation to the foundation's well established
country-related activities. Today, ten such industry groups
exist with more than 400 Governors.
1982 The first
Informal Gathering of World Economic Leaders takes place on
the occasion of the Annual Meeting in Davos, bringing together
cabinet members of major countries with heads of international
organizations (such as the World
Bank, IMF, GATT). This serves as a
model for similar initiatives in the global public interest,
including: the Club of Media Leaders (editors-in-chief) the
annual informal gathering of heads of the world's foremost
non-governmental economic research organizations the Informal
Gathering of Regional Leaders the Informal Gathering of Global
City Leaders the Roundtable of Industry and International
Organization Leaders. All take place on the occasion of the
Annual Meeting in Davos.
A
special Informal Gathering of Trade Ministers from 17
countries is organized in Lausanne by the foundation, which
spurs the launch of the Uruguay Round.
1980-1970
1979 The publication
of the first annual World Competitiveness Report marks the
debut of the foundation's research
activities.
The foundation is
the first non-governmental organization to initiate a
partnership with China's economic commissions and starts
activities in China. Since 1980, an annual China Business
Summit is held in Beijing and a high-level Chinese delegation
comes to Davos every year. No other organization has brought
so many businesses to China; many joint ventures flourishing
today originated within the activities of the Forum. The
foundation has had a substantial impact on the economic reform
policies of China.
1977 The foundation
starts to organize Country Forums in developing countries. In
such a way it highlights the potential of emerging markets and
helps to integrate these countries into the world
economy.
1976 With the
creation of the first Arab-European Business Leaders Symposium
in Montreux (2,000 participants) and the first Latin
American-European Business Leaders Symposium in 1977,
foundation activities take on an international
dimension.
The foundation
transforms itself into a membership organization, becoming the
catalyst for the foremost global business
network.
1973 Country Forums
are created, to bring together the international business
community with the political and economic leaders of specific
countries. By 1995, more than 500 such meetings have taken
place - in some 30 capitals or at the foundation's
headquarters in Geneva, making the foundation the leading
interface for global business/government
interaction.
After
concentrating at first on management issues, the foundation
increasingly integrates into its activities (after the oil
shock) political, economic and social issues. It starts to
play a major role in confronting environmental challenges as
expressed, for example, in its role as an official adviser to
the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992.
1971 Klaus Schwab
founds the European Management Forum, a not-for-profit
foundation, as a framework for further initiatives and
activities. The foundation's Annual Meeting in Davos is now
considered the global summit which defines the political,
economic and business agenda for the
year.
In 1970, Klaus Schwab,
Professor of Business Administration, took the initiative and
the personal risk to convene Europe's chief executives to an
informal gathering in the Swiss mountain town of Davos in
January 1971, to discuss a coherent strategy for European
business to face challenges in the international marketplace.
He secured the patronage of the Commission of the European
Communities, as well as the encouragement of Europe's industry
associations. This is the beginning of the World Economic
Forum.
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