People are watching the Marina Bay area light up as part of Singapore’s New Year’s Eve celebrations on December 31, 2020.
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The World Economic Forum (WEF) aims to attract about 1,000 delegates to its Singapore summit in late May and wants the iconic Marina Bay Sands complex to host the event, two sources familiar with the organization’s plans said.
Sources, who did not want to be identified because negotiations are ongoing, said plans for the May 25-28 event are still fluid, given the uncertainty of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.
WEF and Marina Bay Sands declined to comment. The Singapore Ministry of Commerce did not comment immediately.
The annual gathering of political and business leaders has been moved from its usual home in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, from where it takes its informal name, to Singapore in December due to fears about virus security, organizers said.
If it continues as planned, the event would be the first personal global conference since Covid-19 began to spread widely in early 2020. The previous Davos Summit in Davos in January 2020 was one of the last and attracted 3,000 delegates and thousands of others for side events.
WEF targets about 1,000 delegates in Singapore, sources said, possibly up to 1,800 if conditions allow. Regular side events – which have seen the population of the alpine town of Davos grow from 10,000 to about 30,000 in previous years – will be significantly reduced because of the virus, the sources added.
However, there is a lot of uncertainty. Singapore, a 5.7 million Southeast Asian island nation, has had its borders largely closed to visitors for nearly a year and has imposed strict quarantine measures on returning residents.
The emergence of several variants of infectious viruses has led the city-state to impose travel permits on some countries in recent weeks.
The WEF organizers hope that participants will be able to avoid quarantine through rigorous testing and remaining in a “bubble” separate from the local population. Singapore is set to begin a trial of a limited version of the system later this month and has also said it will consider relaxing travel restrictions for vaccinated travelers.
Alvin Tan, a senior Commerce Ministry official, said earlier this month that there will be measures to manage interactions between WEF participants and locals, but said specific details are still being worked out.
Finding a place for this WEF bubble, where participants can eat, sleep and mingle, prompted the organization to target Marina Bay Sands as potential hosts, sources said.
Marina Bay Sands, owned by the late billionaire Las Vegas Sands of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is the most recognized global building on the rich city-state skyline, regularly featured on postcards and other tourist products.
It looks like a surfboard perched on top of three towers, has over 2,500 rooms and suites, a casino, shops and restaurants, as well as convention and exhibition facilities that can accommodate over 45,000 delegates.
A virus-protected business travel facility, built at a convention center near the airport, could also be among the hosts for WEF travelers, authorities said.