The World Economic Forum announced Wednesday that it will hold its Annual Meeting in 2002 in New York instead of Davos, Switzerland.

The gathering will take place in 2002 from January 31 to February 4.

“In these extraordinary times, greater international cooperation is needed to reverse the global economic downturn, eradicate poverty, promote security and enhance cultural understanding. These will be the principal concerns of the 2002 meeting. We will be looking to participants from business, governments and a wide range of other stakeholders in global society to make a special effort to find solutions for the new world in which we are living. As the world’s financial capital and the site of the recent terrorist attacks, there could be no better place than New York City to confront these issues,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, president of the Forum.

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting gathers leaders from business, government, civil society, academia and the media to address key economic, political and social issues on the global agenda.

Schwab said that the Annual Meeting plans to return to Davos in 2003. “Davos has been home to the Forum’s Annual Meeting for 31 years, but these are extraordinary times, and we feel an extraordinary response is both necessary and appropriate. So we’ll have ‘Davos in New York’ in 2002.”