What can the world expect from the 2025 World Economic Forum, and why does China matter?

The Annual Meeting 2025 of the World Economic Forum will take place at Davos-Klosters in Switzerland from January 20 to 24, convening global leaders from governments, businesses, and civil society to preeminent scientific and cultural thinkers to address key global and regional challenges. 

Under the theme "Collaboration for the Intelligent Age," participants will address critical issues, such as responding to geopolitical shocks, stimulating growth to improve living standards, and managing a just and inclusive energy transition.

The program will be oriented around five distinct but highly interconnected thematic priorities: rebuilding trust, reimagining growth, investing in people, safeguarding the planet, and industries in the intelligent age, which focus on how business leaders can strike a balance between the short-term goals and long-term imperatives in the transformation of their industries.

The escalation of geopolitical conflicts and regional instability has brought the level of global cooperation to a low point, according to a report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 7, which called on the international community to actively explore cooperation paths and strengthen cooperation to meet common challenges.

Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, said that in the face of a challenging global situation, cooperation is the only way to address major economic, environmental and technological challenges.

What is the World Economic Forum?

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WEF is an international not-for-profit organization focused on bringing the public and private sectors together to address global political, social and economic issues.

The WEF was founded in 1971 by Swiss-German economist and professor Klaus Schwab in a bid to promote global cooperation on these most pressing problems.

The first WEF meeting was held more than five decades ago in Davos, which has been the home of the annual gathering almost ever since, with Davos becoming the shorthand for the event.

China and the World Economic Forum

In a spotlight event held during the WEF Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos, Chinese Premier Li Qiang shared views on tackling global challenges and understanding the Chinese economy in a special address, beginning with his perspective on "rebuilding trust."

In his speech, Li cautioned against "fragmented and separate responses" to global crises, suggesting that countries strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination and firmly uphold the multilateral trading system to build greater synergy for global growth.

In addition to China's proposals on addressing world challenges, the Chinese premier shared the proper method to observe the Chinese economy, noting that China will stay committed to the fundamental national policy of opening up and open its door even wider to the world.

After Li's address, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, thanked the Chinese premier for sharing proposals related to strengthening global cooperation and providing "a trustful outlook for China's economy."

"The premier's address conveyed unwavering determination to promote the construction of an open world economy and once again expressed confidence in sharing China's development opportunities with countries worldwide," said Deloitte China Chair Jiang Ying.

China contributes "a diverse and stable industrial supply system and an extensive consumer market" to the global economy, Jiang said, adding that Chinese innovation has also been continuously injecting new vitality into global industrial prosperity.

China's cooperation with the WEF has kept pace with the country's reform and opening up. Since 1979, China has sent delegations to attend the forum's annual meeting multiple times at its invitation. In 2005, Schwab proposed the idea of having Summer Davos in China. In September 2007, the first annual meeting of Summer Davos was held in Dalian in China's Liaoning Province.

With the deepening of China's reform and opening up, China-related topics have become increasingly popular at the WEF. In nearly 40 years, the WEF has not only witnessed China's gradual rise to become the world's second-largest economy but has also promoted China's interaction with the world.

With development initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative and multilateral platforms, such as Summer Davos, China is firmly committed to strengthening international economic cooperation, building infrastructure, and promoting technological advancement on a global scale.