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Davos meeting to discuss global economy, climate, Haiti

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-21 00:46

GENEVA: Discussion of the global economic situation, climate change and the rebuilding of quake-hit Haiti would headline the Davos meeting later this month, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said on Wednesday.

The Geneva-based organization said its annual meeting in the Swiss skiing resort would draw more than 2,500 leaders from more than 90 countries, representing business, government, civil society, academia and the media. The overall theme of this year's meeting is "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild".

After the global financial and economic crisis, the world had fundamentally changed, said Profesor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF, at a press conference. He said the world also faced a social crisis, one feature of which was the rising number of jobless people.

"We have to look at the meeting in the context of what's happening in the world ... and we see, clearly, that the present system of global cooperation is not working sufficiently," Schwab said.

"So we want to look at all issues on the global agency in a systematic, integrated and stragetic way, and we want to address in particular the issue of global cooperation. This is the reason why our annual meeting this year is tailored around the need to rethink, redesign and rebuild," he added.

According to WEF officials, more than 200 working sessions will be held during the January 27-31 meeting. The three big issues to be discussed include the global economic situation, the world negotiations on climate change and international cooperation in general.

Major topics include the new role of the United States and China, the growth of Latin America, the eurozone economy, the future of Africa, the situation in the Middle East, the rebuilding of Afghanistan, and the prospects of an East Asia Community.

The future of Haiti in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake will also be on the agenda. "We hope that we can present a major common effort to the world community, showing the corporate global citizenship in Davos," Schwab said.

The participants will include more than 1,400 top-level executives from the world's leading companies, some 30 heads of state or government, more than 60 government ministers and more than 100 top officials from international organizations and nongovernmental organizations.