Trump, Modi, China’s Economy Guru to Attend Davos Meeting

Dozens of heads of state and government and hundreds of global elites from the worlds of business, academia, civil society and other sectors are convening at the snowcapped Swiss town of Davos for the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting, a four-day event that started Tuesday.

Among the political leaders in attendance are Narendra Modi — the first Indian prime minister to attend the WEF in two decades, who will deliver the opening speech on Tuesday — and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump, who is slated to give a speech on Friday, will also be the first U.S. president to speak at the forum since 2000.

Other heads of state include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to the WEF’s website.

Liu He, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s top financial and economic adviser and a member of the Communist Party’s powerful 25-seat Politburo, is the highest-ranking Chinese official to attend this year’s WEF and is scheduled to speak about China’s economic policy on Wednesday.

The world’s powerful and wealthy are brought together at the WEF this year under the banner “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World,” with issues on the agenda such as how the global economy can continue to grow and benefit more people, how to cope with anti-globalization sentiment and what policymakers can do to improve the governance of technology.

Trump is set to jangle the nerves of many of the elites at this year’s session as he has signaled he will bring his populist “America First” message to the event.

“The President will attend and he welcomes the opportunity to go there and advance his America First agenda with world leaders,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said at a briefing earlier this month when she announced Trump’s planned trip.

Contact reporter Fran Wang (fangwang@caixin.com)