For the first time in twenty years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the 48th World Economic Forum (WEF) with exquisite desi cuisine on the platter and live yoga sessions on display.
The annual Swiss jamboree of the rich and powerful from ‘a fractured world’ will kick-off tomorrow in Davos where PM Modi will pitch India as a growth engine for the global economy.
More than 3,000 world leaders from business, politics, art, academia and civil society is expected to attend WEF Annual Meeting over the next five days. The event is held in the small ski resort town on snow-covered Alps mountains, where the India presence will be the largest ever with more than 130 participants.
Klaus Schwab, Chairman of WEF, will declare the summit open tomorrow evening. The world leaders will be welcomed with a message on the meeting’s theme, ‘Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World’.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Australian actress Cate Blanchett and legendary musician Elton John will attend the annual ‘Crystal Awards’ for their respective work towards improving the state of the world.
A ballet performance will also be held in the evening while India will host the ‘welcome reception’ with the country’s “exquisite cuisine and age-old Yoga heritage as well as the spirit of a young, innovative New India”.
The official sessions of WEF will start on Tuesday when PM Narendra Modi will deliver the ‘opening plenary’. It is expected PM Modi will pitch India as an open economy that is ready for investments from across the world as well as a major engine to drive the global economic growth.
It’s important to point out that PM Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to attend Davos meeting in about 20 years since HD Deve Gowda in 1997.
Modi’ 24-hour-visit is described by officials as “short but very focused”. He will host a dinner for CEOs from across the world, 20 of Indian companies and 40 from other countries on Monday evening. He will be interacting with a large gathering of 120 members of WEF’s international business community on Tuesday.
As per government officials, Modi will hold a bilateral meeting with Swiss President Alain Berset, among other pull-asides.
Six of union ministers such as Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, MJ Akbar and Jitendra Singh will accompany PM Modi.
Whereas, CEO delegation will also follow Modi. Top industry body CII, including Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Azim Premji, Rahul Bajaj, N Chandrasekaran, Chanda Kochhar, Uday Kotak and Ajay Singh, among others will be present at the Annual Meeting.
US President Donald Trump will also be present there to deliver the closing address. However, reports suggest that Prime Minister Modi is unlikely to have a meeting with Trump since the two would not be in town on the same day.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistani Prime Minister, will also be in Davos, however, officials in India revealed that no meeting is scheduled between him and PM Modi.
Several European leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Theresa May will be attending WEF annual meeting in Davos. Amongst them, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also be present.
US President Donald Trump will talk regarding his ‘America First’ policy, but officials in India claimed PM Modi’s central message at this multilateral forum will be about India being an economy that can be an engine of global growth. India wants others to participate in its growth as well as to contribute to others’ development.
A lot of expectation is associated as to what President Donald Trump will be saying and what would be the response of other world leaders, including from Germany, France and the UK.
In a first at the WEF summit, India will be hosting yoga training sessions for the entire duration of the meeting. Indian heritage and culture will also be showcased in Davos.
At the sidelines of the WEF summit, the Swiss government reportedly to host the annual informal WTO ministerial meeting, and it will be attended by Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu and his global counterparts.
The Swiss government had issued a statement that negotiations on a bilateral investment protection pact and the conceived free trade agreement between India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), where Switzerland is also a member, will reckon prominently throughout PM Modi’s meeting with President Berset.
It is widely expected that PM Modi encapsulate the making of ‘a new, young and innovative India’, while he is also expected to talk about his experience with ‘cooperative federalism’ in India. He will also request the world for a collective crackdown on terrorism, economic imbalances, cyber threats and various societal ills.
Officials state that Modi will be speaking about several steps they have taken to make it easier to do business in India, such as check corruption, clamp down on black money, streamline taxation and boost sustainable growth.
It’s vital to note that another star speaker will be attending the summit and it is former Governor Raghuram Rajan, who has a reputation of a critical view on everything from politics to economics and is credited for predicting the global economic crisis of 2008.
He will speak on the power of economic narratives and how policymakers can address the challenges of the 21st century.