China and the World Economic Forum
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The 2010 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting opens on Wednesday in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang will attend the meeting.
The links between China and the WEF started in 1979, when a Chinese delegation was invited to the forum for the first time.
Since the 1980s, China has been sending high-level delegations to the WEF's annual meetings and many Chinese leaders have also made their presence. Premier Wen Jiabao attended the forum's annual meeting last year.
Since 1981, the WEF has partnered with the China Enterprise Confederation, a non-governmental organization, in hosting the China Business Summit. In 2007, the summit was replaced by the Summer Davos Forum, held in China.
The notion of the Summer Davos Forum, or Annual Meeting of the New Champions, was initiated in 2005 by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF. The forum aimed to include fast-emerging companies in global dialogue and make them more aware of global opportunities and risks.
The Summer Davos Forum has been held three times in China. The first was held in northeast China's port city of Dalian in September 2007, the second in northern China's Tianjin in September 2008, and the third in Dalian again in September 2009.
In June 2006, the WEF opened its regional office in Beijing.
