History of Davos Economic Forum: Davos Economic Forum (WEF) was founded in 1971 on the initiative of Swiss professor Klaus Schwab. Klaus Schwab held the first symposium in Davos in 1971, and brought together the top business leaders of 450 European firms to discuss the perspectives of the world economy and prepare a common strategy. Starting from the middle of the 70s executives of different countries and top business leaders of the world began to be invited to the meetings of the forum. DEF changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987. Annual meetings are typical of Davos Forum. The main purpose of the annual WEF is to discuss and organize economic projects with the participation of the heads of states, international organizations, scientists, reputable politicians, economists and businessmen. "Global Competitiveness Report" is being produced by WEF experts since 1979. Over 100 countries of the world are assessed according to their potential progress and competitiveness in these reports.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev at WEF in Davos: On January 27-31, in 1995 Heydar Aliyev was on business visit to Davos in Switzerland to take part in the World Economic Forum for the first time. On the occasion of the participation of Azerbaijan in the forum there was held a special meeting on Azerbaijan, and Heydar Aliyev informed the participants of the forum about Azerbaijan and its political, economic, social and cultural progress rates. Heydar Aliyev declared that Azerbaijan is rich in carbohydrogen reserves and pursues foreign economic policy based on the principles of usage of these reserves with any country on the basis of mutual interests for the future progress of the world. He stated: "Azerbaijan which is rich in oil and gas deposits and other natural resources is open for the cooperation with foreign companies, investors and the world."
On March 27-30, 2000, President Heydar Aliyev participated in the session on " Perspectives of the Caucasus and Central Asia: Silk Road or a big game". Within the frames of his visit, Heydar Aliyev met WEF president Klaus Schwab. Klaus Schwab stated that all the countries of the world take interest in the Caucasus, and he appreciated the contract on Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline as an obvious case of its increasing reputation in the world. Heydar Aliyev stated that cooperation with WEF would give Azerbaijan great opportunities to improve its economic might. Heydar Aliyev met President of Switzerland Adolf Ogi and minister of Finance Kaspar Villiger. Along with other problems he discussed the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with them.
Only once in 2002 WEF was held in New-York as a sign of protest to terror acts in the USA, on September 11. Three thousand representatives from 106 countries came to New-York and demonstrated their protest against September11 terror acts. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan took part in the forum and expressed his extreme worry about the terror acts in New-York city, in the USA, on September 11. Heydar Aliyev stated that it was very important for all the countries in the world to unite their efforts to struggle against terrorism. Heydar Aliyev appreciated separatism as a source of terrorism and cited the Nagorno-Karabakh as an example: "...Conflict in this region began with the intentions of separatism, and then turned into a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and as a result 16.000 km2 territory of Azerbaijan is beyond our control, more precisely, these territories are under the control of the illegal armed forces. Not any international organization and the world community controls this territory. Of course, there are many weapons there. Drug trafficking is also possible there. It is a source conflict, a source of terrorism..."
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at WEF in Davos: President Ilham Aliyev also represented Azerbaijan at WEF, for several times. He met and negotiated with the heads of states, leaders of great firms, plenipotentiaries of international organizations. As President, Ilham Aliyev participated in WEF in January of 2007. Davos Forum was held under the motto of "Shifting power equation". On January 25, 2007, within the frames of Davos Forum, President Ilham Aliyev made a speech on "Increasing importance of oil geopolitics". President talked about global energy projects and their importance for the whole world. He noted the importance of the achievements in sphere of energy for the whole region. Within his visit Ilham Aliyev met Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. Klaus Schwab emphasized the importance of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's participation in this Forum. He highly appreciated the increasing role of Azerbaijan in the sphere of energy bearers and its role in the regional cooperation.
According to appreciations of WEF in 2008 Azerbaijan was the first among CIS countries and the 62nd in the world.
On January 23, 2008 Ilham Aliyev paid a business visit to Switzerland to take part in Davos Forum for the second time. He made a speech on "The role of solar energy in power engineering industry". The meeting dealt with the obviating the factors affecting climate changes, reduction of carbon dioxide to atmosphere, the importance of developing cooperation in energy sphere. President Ilham Aliyev spoke about the economic progress and reforms in Azerbaijan, energy projects and work done in this sphere. He met Pascal Couchepin, President of Switzerland, in Davos. The presidents mentioned the successful development of bilateral relations and expressed their satisfaction with the extension of relations between the two countries.
On January 28-February 2, 2009, the 39th World Economic Forum was held in Davos. It discussed the economic and political problems of the modern world, the main problems of global progress and rendering assistance to the increase of business cooperation. Within the frames of Davos Economic forum Ilham Aliyev took part in the meeting on the topic "Great game is being repeated". Along with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Turkish Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, minister of foreign affairs of Iran Manouchehr Mottaki, minister of foreign affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian took part at the meeting. The meeting dealt with the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union, ensuring the security in the region, the future of the Nabucco project, the Turkish-Armenian relations and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project. President Ilham Aliyev took part at the meeting on the topic "Oil-gas policy: changes on the map " as well. Control on the production of oil, increasing interests of oil and gas companies to Russia and the Middle East, interests of OPEC and interests of three main gas producer countries and issues on the changes in the sphere of energy in the nearest future were on the spotlight of the meeting where President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, representatives of the leading European and world companies like, ENI, Total, Exxon/Mobile, Statoil-Hydro took part.
On January 27-28, 2010 President Ilham Aliyev participated in Davos Forum. Within the frames of the forum the Azerbaijani President made a speech on the topic "Oil-gas geopolitics: new borders" in the summit and on the topic "Global energy panorama" at the meeting. President Ilham Aliyev also met Slovenian President Danilo Turk, president of Latvia Valdis Zatlers, Swiss President Doris Leuthard and President of Poland Lex Kachinsky and discussed issues of mutual interest. President Ilham Aliyev met the directors of transnational companies and at the same time gave an interview for press.
General historical reference was compiled on April 5, in 2010.