China : WEF open first office in Asia

The World Economic Forum (WEF) will celebrate the inauguration of its Representative Office in Beijing. The office will become the global headquarters for the Forum's Centre for Global Growth Companies.

The Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab, will attend the opening ceremony senior members of the Chinese government, as well as key corporate members of the Forum.

Earlier this year at the Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice-Chairman, National Development and Reform Commission, People's Republic of China, and Professor Klaus Schwab. The MoU further strengthened the Forum's long-standing engagement in China and set the stage to open the Forum's first office in Asia.

"The World Economic Forum recognized China's promise many years ago, inviting the first Chinese delegation to its Annual Meeting in 1979. The Forum held its first China Business Summit in 1981.

It should come as no surprise that we once again turn to China to help realize what is a key strategic step for the Forum. The Beijing office will be the headquarters of our Global Growth Companies — companies that the Forum will help to become true global champions.

The significance of the Beijing office is that it is truly a global centre — we will not only handle relations with Chinese or Asian companies from here but for companies the world over," said Professor Schwab.

The Annual Meeting of Global Growth Companies, which will be held in August 2007, will be the flagship event and primary community-building activity for the Global Growth Companies. The Annual Meeting will bring together Global Growth Companies and the World Economic Forum's top experts and leaders of industry.

Industry-specific meetings will emphasize the needs and aspirations of companies that are operating globally, developing recognized global brands and managing extremely rapid expansion.

The World Economic Forum invites cities with strong expertise in hosting major international events to submit proposals. For this purpose, a document outlining the expectations has been prepared.

The Community of Global Growth Companies' mission is to enable emerging multinationals to develop into the next generation of global champions and become a major force driving economic development. It is a cross-industry global community of companies that have demonstrated a clear potential to become leaders in the global economy within five years.

The companies enjoy a strong industry or regional market presence and have both the aspiration and ability to become global champions. They will be selected based on a combination of factors:

Demonstrated growth potential and 15 percent annual growth over the last two years Minimum revenue thresholds according to industry and region (an indicative range is between US$ 200 million to US$ 2 billion)

The Community of Global Growth Companies will be a truly global community that brings together companies from all regions of the world. The majority of companies will be based out of China, India, the USA and Europe, with the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, South-East Asia and Japan playing smaller, but important, roles. We expect to have 300 members by 2007 and 500 in total by 2008.