The World Economic Forum (WEF) said on Wednesday it had invited 127 of the world's most promising social activists, business leaders, public servants, artists and technologists under the age of 40, including nine from China, to join its Class of Young Global Leaders.

The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a diverse community of leaders from all walks of life and every region of the world, pushing boundaries, achieving firsts, and breaking traditional rules to improve the world, the WEF said.

Current members lead governments and Fortune 500 companies, hold Nobel Prizes and Academy Awards, and have become United Nations goodwill ambassadors and social entrepreneurs.

The class of 2019 includes the most decorated Olympian female swimmer, the founder of the first app providing advice on contraception in Bangladesh, the managing director of a leading supermarket chain looking to ban plastic packaging and a female scientist whose work is revolutionizing batteries.

"We look to these leaders to take forward the challenge of improving the state of the world," said Mariah Levin, head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders at the WEF.

This year, the list includes the Georgian and Costa Rican heads of state, both in their thirties, and Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwe's Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, who has won more Olympic medals than any other female swimmer in history.

This year, more than half of the new members are women, and many of the Young Global Leaders are from emerging economies. 

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