The World Economic Forum (WEF) shall hold its summer meetings in China every year, said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.
The Inaugural Annual Meeting of New Champions is slated for Sept. 6 to 8 in Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province with the focus on the roles the new generation of fast-growing multinational companies are playing.
Following the WEF's annual meetings early every year at the Swiss winter resort of Davos, the first summer Davos meeting in Dalian is expected to attract more than 1,700 government officials, scholars and business leaders from 90 countries and regions.
"China has been one of the world's fastest growing economies for two decades," he said during an exclusive interview with Xinhua in Dalian. "Many of the new champions are coming from Asia, so Dalian will be a second pillar in the East to complement Davos in the West."
He said Dalian presents one of China's best images as a "new champion". "It is very appropriate for the port city to become the first venue," he said.
According to the WEF's Web site, participants in the WEF's Davos meeting in January 2007 recognized that a new class of leaders and innovators, the new champions, have emerged and are re- shaping business and transforming society. This summer Davos meeting is thus served as "a platform for interaction and cooperation between traditional and new actors, between East and West".
China and the WEF have been in good cooperation for 28 years, and senior Chinese officials have attended several WEF annual meetings, noted the 69-year-old soft-spoken professor who had been to China for at least 30 times.
Currently 29 Chinese enterprises including Lenovo, Sinopec and China Mobile, are among the 1,000-plus WEF members. Mentioning the increasingly important role China is playing in the global arena, Schwab believes the number is "too modest".
"Our objective is to have 100 Chinese members in one or two years, 50 big companies and 50 fast-growing ones," he said.
The next session of Summer Davos will be held from Sept. 25 to 27 of 2008 in Tianjin, another port city some 120 km away from Beijing.
Schwab said the third session could go to an inland city of China.
Source: Xinhua
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