Annual Meeting History Timeline

2009 
• In association with Qatar, Singapore and Switzerland, the World Economic Forum initiates a global, multistakeholder dialogue on a wider global cooperation system. The aim is to examine ways of improving global governance to meet a changing international reality.
• World leaders at the Annual Meeting 2009 celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UN’s Global Compact, which was launched at the Annual Meeting in 1999.
• The Annual Meeting 2009 provides a global platform for four heads of government from the G8 (Germany, Japan, Russia and United Kingdom) as well as from China and from G20 members in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to help the international community explore the origins of the financial crisis and to begin work on solutions based on a common understanding of the situation.

2008 
• At the Annual Meeting 2008, the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda unveils a five-year, US$ 10 billion fund to support efforts in developing countries to combat global warming. At the same Meeting, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announces a US$ 306 million package of agricultural development grants.

2006 
• The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis (2006-2015) is launched by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown and Bill Gates at the Annual Meeting 2006. The project – a coalition of over 400 organizations – aims to treat 50 million people and prevent 14 million tuberculosis deaths worldwide over 10 years.

2003 
• At the World Economic Forum’s Extraordinary Annual Meeting in Jordan, under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II, the Arab Business Council is established in the aftermath of the war in Iraq to provide an important forum for shaping the future of prosperity and security in the Middle East.

2002 
• The Annual Meeting 2002 takes place in New York City as a gesture of solidarity in the aftermath of the attacks on 11 September.
• The Gates Foundation announces a contribution of US$ 50 million for AIDS prevention in Africa, including US$ 20 million to fund the trial of a promising microbicide that could offer women a breakthrough in protection against HIV/AIDS.
• The Annual Meeting 2002 serves as a platform for Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to announce the creation of a 500 million Canadian dollar fund for Africa to support the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development through the implementation of the G8 Africa Action Plan.

2000 
• At the Annual Meeting 2000, World Health Organization Secretary-General Gro Harlem Brundtland announces a Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

1999 
• UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announces the Global Compact, to give “a human face to the global market” at the Annual Meeting 1999.

1994 
• Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho at the Annual Meeting 1994.

1992 
• South African President F. W. de Klerk meets Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi at the Annual Meeting 1992, their first joint appearance outside South Africa and a milestone in the country’s political transition.

1989 
• North Korea and South Korea hold their first ministerial-level meetings at the Annual Meeting 1989; at the same Meeting, East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl meet to discuss German reunification.

1988 
• Greece and Turkey turn back from the brink of war by signing the “Davos Declaration” at the Annual Meeting 1988.

1987 
• German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher urges participants to “give Gorbachev a chance”, marking a turning point in the Cold War.