This year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) will be held from Monday to Friday.
Under the theme “Working together to regain trust,” world leaders will gather to discuss critical challenges facing the world today and ideas on how to address them.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; the week-long virtual event will take place first on the WEF website and social media channels.
The in-person meeting is postponed to the end of June if the situation allows, according to the WEF.
The event will cover topics including accelerating the race to net-zero emissions, navigating energy transition, rebuilding trust in global trade and supply chains, meeting the challenge of vaccine equity, and using data solutions to prepare against the next pandemic.
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The event will also mark the launch of several WEF initiatives covering the pressing issues the world faces.
Many national leaders will attend and give speeches during the forum, with Chinese President Xi Jinping delivering the first special address at the beginning of the forum on Monday, from Beijing via video link.
It will be Xi’s third speech at the forum. In a special address to the event via video link in January 2021; the Chinese president championed multilateralism.
He attended the Davos, Switzerland, event in 2017, where he promoted economic globalization and warned against protectionism in his keynote speech.
China’s economic rebound
China’s economy has staged an impressive comeback since the COVID-19 outbreak, which provided an overriding force driving the recovery of the global economy.
In 2020, China was the only major economy that saw positive growth.
After dipping 6.8 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s economy presented a V-shaped recovery in the second quarter; followed by two consecutive rising streaks in the last two quarters of 2020. Its economy logged a 2.3 percent expansion for the year.
China is expected to release the key economic data for the full year of 2021 on Monday.
In the first three quarters, the country’s GDP grew by 9.8 percent compared with a year earlier.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected the Chinese economy to record 8 percent growth for the year; in line with economists’ estimates polled by Bloomberg and AFP.
China’s export surged nearly 30 percent in 2021, fueling economic growth. Chief Economist of Hang Seng Bank China Wang Dan attributed the jump in export to China’s effective outbreak prevention and control work; which enabled the country to maintain a stable operation of industrial chains.
China has also stepped up its efforts in building a low-carbon energy system during the year; in an effort to peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
The country has promoted the use of renewable energy and cut the use of coal.
It has also employed the market mechanism in incentivizing emissions reduction by launching a national carbon market.
The emissions trading scheme serves as the world’s largest with 2,162 power generation companies taking part.
