WASHINGTON, Dec 1: The World Economic Forum will be meeting in New York next year and not Davos as in the past from January 31 to February 4.

The move, the Forum said, signalled its members determination to tackle head-on the extra-ordinary challenges faced by the world after the attacks of 11 September.

The Forum meets every year since 1971, attracting world’s political and business leaders, including serving and former heads of state and government.

According to Prof Klaus Schwab, president of the Forum, in these extra-ordinary times, greater international cooperation is needed to reverse the global economic downturn, eradicate poverty, promote security and enhance cultural understanding. These will be the principal concerns of the 2002 meeting. “We will be looking to participants from business, governments and a wide range of other stakeholders in global society to make a special effort to find solutions for the new world in which we are living. As the world’s financial capital and the site of the recent terrorist attacks, there could be no better place than New York City to confront these issues,” he added.

The Geneva-based forum is funded by contributions of 1,000 of the world’s foremost corporations. It was awarded NGO consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 1995.—APP