NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the keynote speech at the plenary session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland on January 23.
Briefing the media on the visit in New Delhi on Friday, Secretary (Economic Relations) and Foreign Secretary-designate Vijay Keshav Gokhale said this “short but focused 24-hour trip” will be the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 20 years, after Deve Gowda in 1997.
At that time, “India was an economy well below one trillion dollars. Today we are an economy above two trillion dollars, and therefore this visit by the Prime Minister is qualitatively different from earlier visits,” he said.
The theme for this year’s WEF is “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World,” and the plenary session will be moderated by WEF Founder and Executive Chairman, Professor Klaus Schwab.
“The main event is the keynote speech which Prime Minister will give at the plenary session on January 23. There will also be a bilateral engagement with the President of Switzerland, and occasions for other pulls asides as needed. The important signal of this visit is that we engage we engage with the world in a multidimensional way, “Gokhale said.
“It comes at a time when India’s attractiveness as an economy has grown, accompanied with a quantum jump in multiple indices and in the context of several reforms that the government has announced, particularly in the past year. The Prime Minister will articulate his vision of how he sees the Indian economy contributing not only for the benefit of the people of India but also on a global scale,” he said.
On his arrival at Davos on the January 22, Modi will host a round table dinner for interaction with global CEOs, including Indian CEOs.
Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, said, “These 60 are from 23 different sectors and the market cap of these companies is 3.3 trillion dollars. If it had been a country it would have been the fifth-largest in the world.”
There will also be an interaction with 120 members of the International Business Council a part of the Economic Forum, on the afternoon of 23rd, which will have the heads of GM, Salesforce.com, Royal Dutch Shell, BASF, JP Morgan Chase, Nestle, etc., he said.
“This will give them an opportunity to interact directly with the PM, and get comfortable about the transformative changes happening in India, which presents huge opportunities for them.”
Six ministers from India, including finance, Railways, commerce, petroleum and natural gas, external affairs, will also be attending the forum and addressing various sessions, while two Yoga acharyas will be there to showcase India’s soft power.