The World Economic Forum (WEF) and China agreed on Wednesday to establish a WEF office in Beijing that will lead to an annual global industry summit in the Chinese capital as of 2007.

WEF founder and executive chairman, Klaus Schwab, signed a memorandum of understanding on the establishment of the office with a Chinese official.

"We have chosen China for our Global Industry Summit because we believe China is well positioned to serve as a global hub for working with the next generation of corporate champions," said Schwab.

Schwab told reporters earlier in the day that the global corporate landscape is changing with the emergence of more and more companies from the developing world which will become global players.

"What we are creating in China is a center for global companies," he said, adding that the Global Industry Summit will be a parallel platform of the Davos meeting for the next generation of companies.

The WEF was founded in 1971 in Geneva with a commitment to "improving the state of the world." The Davos meeting invites business and political elite from around the world at the beginning of each year to gauge the global economic outlook for the year and to discuss global hot issues.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2006)