People watch as the Marina Bay area is illuminated as part of the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Singapore on December 31, 2020.
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The World Economic Forum (WEF) aims to attract approximately 1,000 delegates to the Singapore summit in late May and wants the iconic Marina Bay Sands complex to host the event, according to two sources familiar with the organization’s plans.
The sources, not wanting to be identified as ongoing negotiations, said plans for the May 25-28 event were still volatile given the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic raging around the world.
The WEF and Marina Bay Sands declined to comment. The Singapore Ministry of Commerce did not immediately comment.
The annual gathering of political and business leaders was moved from its usual home in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, from which it takes its informal name, to Singapore in December over fears of virus safety, organizers said.
If it goes ahead as planned, the event would be the first in-person global conference since Covid-19 spread widely in early 2020. The previous WEF summit in Davos in January 2020 was one of the last, attracting 3,000 delegates and thousands of others for side events.
WEF is targeting about 1,000 delegates in Singapore, the sources said, possibly up to 1,800 if conditions permit. The usual side events – which in previous years have increased the population of the Alpine city of Davos from 10,000 to about 30,000 – will be significantly curtailed by the virus, the sources added.
Still, there is a lot of uncertainty. Singapore, a Southeast Asian island nation of 5.7 million inhabitants, has largely closed its borders to visitors for nearly a year and has imposed strict quarantine measures on returning residents.
The rise of more contagious virus variants has resulted in the city-state imposing further travel restrictions on some countries in recent weeks.
WEF organizers hope that visitors will be able to avoid quarantines through rigorous testing and by staying in a “bubble” cut off from the locals. Singapore will start a trial with a limited version of this scheme later this month, and has also said it will ease travel restrictions for vaccinated travelers.
Alvin Tan, a senior trade ministry official, said earlier this month that measures would be taken to manage interactions between WEF visitors and locals, but said specific details are still being worked out.
Finding a location for this WEF bubble, where visitors can also eat, sleep and talk, has led the organization to designate Marina Bay Sands as potential hosts, the sources said.
Owned by the late billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands, Marina Bay Sands is the most recognizable building on the wealthy city-state’s skyline and features regularly on postcards and other tourist wares.
Resembling a surfboard atop three towers, it has more than 2,500 rooms and suites, a casino, shops and restaurants, as well as convention and exhibition facilities that can accommodate more than 45,000 delegates.
A virus-resistant business travel facility being built in a convention center near the airport could also be one of the locations to receive WEF travelers, authorities said.