World Economic Forum meet in Davos starts

(

) Jan 22: The

(

) started its annual meeting Wednesday at the Swiss ski resort of Davos under the theme 'Reshaping of World'.

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF, said in a welcome message that he expected participants to bring brain, soul, compassion and nerves to this year's event to ensure a successful meeting, Xinhua reported.

The four-day meeting, a platform for world's elite to probe a variety of underlining issues, will bring together over 2,500 participants from almost 100 countries, including more than 1,500 business leaders and over 40 heads of state or government, according to the WEF.

At a pre-event press conference earlier this month, Schwab confidence in the world's economic performance was slowly coming back, but many problems remained such as large fiscal deficits faced by many countries.

Schwab predicted relatively slow growth in the bext five to 10 years, but even if the world gets out of the crisis, the growth rate would not be restored to the pre-crisis level.

"We forget that we should look for solutions for the really fundamental issues. We should look at our future in a much more constructive, (and) in a much more strategic way. That is what Davos is about," he said .

At more than 250 sessions and workshops during the forum, participants will exchange opinions on fundamental issues such as natural growth, global financial outlook, new energy, ocean economies, health and climate change.

All the issues are under four major topics - embracing disruptive innovation, achieving inclusive growth, meeting society's new expectations and sustaining a world of nine billion people.

IANS