World Economic Forum cancels 2021 annual meeting in Singapore

The World Economic Forum cancelled its 2021 annual meeting scheduled for Singapore in three months' time on Monday, saying it was not possible to hold such a large, global event due to the COVID-19 situation.

"Regretfully, the tragic circumstances unfolding across geographies, an uncertain travel outlook, differing speeds of vaccination rollout and the uncertainty around new variants combine to make it impossible to realise a global meeting with business, government and civil society leaders from all over the world at the scale which was planned," it said in a statement. WEF had already pushed back its special meeting in Singapore, initially scheduled for mid-May, following the announcement last year it was moving from its usual home in the Swiss alps due to the pandemic situation in Europe.