World Economic Forum cancels meeting in Singapore; Shangri-La Dialogue organiser remains hopeful

THE World Economic Forum (WEF) announced on Monday that its special annual meeting to be held in Singapore from Aug 17 to 20 will be scrapped, following a spike in Covid-19 community cases here that has also led to the second deferment of the Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble.

The WEF had informed the Singapore government that its decision was due to global uncertainties caused by Covid-19.

In its media statement issued on Monday, it highlighted “the tragic circumstances unfolding across geographies, an uncertain travel outlook, differing speeds of vaccination rollout and the uncertainty around new variants”.

Instead, the next meeting will take place in the first half of 2022, with the date and location yet to be decided. 

In a statement, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said that the Singapore government "fully appreciates the challenges caused by the ongoing global pandemic, particularly for a large meeting with a broad span of international participants".

"We will continue to work actively with the World Economic Forum and other key international organisations to promote collaborations between stakeholders on issues of global concern," said the ministry.

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This latest move comes after several changes to the dates of the WEF event, which was initially reported to be held from May 13-16, then later pushed back to May 24-28.

About 1,000 global political, academic and business leaders were expected to attend this year's edition, which was moved from Davos, Switzerland, to Singapore in light of the Covid-19 situation in Europe last year. This is about a third of the number of participants that attended last year.

This cancelled global leadership summit meeting in August aimed to address the challenges of recovering from the pandemic, and lay the base for a "more inclusive and sustainable world", according to the WEF.

"It was a difficult decision, particularly in view of the great interest of our partners to come together not just virtually but in person, and to contribute to a more resilient, more inclusive and more sustainable world," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF.

"But ultimately, the health and safety of everyone concerned is our highest priority."

On Sunday, new Minister of Health Ong Ye Kung said during a media briefing that the organisers of the upcoming WEF special annual meeting and Shangri-La Dialogue in June will monitor the situation closely and make their own recommendations whether to proceed with their events. 

On Monday, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that it remains committed to organising the Shangri-La Dialogue in early June as scheduled.

It was previously reported that there were plans to hold the WEF event at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) complex, with organisers hoping that attendees would be able to avoid quarantines through rigorous testing and by staying in a "bubble" cut off from the local population.

MBS was identified as a potential venue because of its ability to host this "bubble", where participants can eat, sleep and mingle.

In April this year, Singapore was named by Bloomberg as the best place in the world to be in the midst of a global pandemic. At that time, locally transmitted cases were down to almost zero, with administered vaccines covering almost a fifth of its population, and residents could go about their everyday lives.

Shortly after that, the situation reversed course, with clusters forming in Changi Airport and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, which led to a spike in community infections.

The government has since announced a new wave of Covid-19 restrictions, which include a month-long ban on dining-in and a further reduction of social gatherings from five people to two. Working from home is now the default for workplaces, compared with earlier measures that allowed 50 per cent of staff to be in the office.