Davos invites business honchos

Geneva, January 22:

Over the coming week, a small corner of the Swiss Alps will become a businessman’s playgro-und as more than 1,000 executi-ves buttonhole rivals and political leaders on global challenges and deals, in between runs down ski slopes for the fittest.

The annual, clubbish, meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) regularly draws a sizeable chunk of the world’s corporate and political elite to the eastern Swiss resort of Davos. After last year’s foray into both poverty and climate change with Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroeder, Brazil’s Lula or president Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the organisers readily admit that the 2006 event has seen some political downsizing.

“Clearly one year on our minds are in a different place,” said WEF managing director (MD) Ged Davis, announcing an economic bias to the five-day long meeting starting on Wednesday. This year’s array of global concerns range from the growing weight of China and India, to fe-ars of an oil and energy crisis or the strain on global water supplies.

Heads of state and government beyond freshly-elected German chancellor Angela Merkel will be thin on the ground and the ministerial representation is dominated by finance and trade specialists. About half the 2,340 participants expected in Davos are business chiefs — just 15 per cent of them women — including the heads of three-quarters of the top 100 ranked firms.

“The WEF tries to keep away from issues that are too politicised,” Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman responded after being asked about the potential for talks on Iran, “For me the key issue is the shift of the centre of gravity from the west to the east, the rise of China and India not as a threat, but as an opportunity.”

Chinese vice-premier and central economic planning chief Zeng Peiyan, and the governor of China’s central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, who holds the key to the yuan’s exchange rate, are due be accompanied by a showcase business delegation. India’s business community is also flocking to the Alps, along with commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath, who is due to take part in a meeting on the sidelines of the forum.

The WEF’s mainly western, $20,000-a-year fee paying members highlighted the two Asian powers as areas of ‘immense’ opportunity, but also signalled anxiety about low cost competition, Davis said.

An internal survey found that energy related topics came top of their list of concerns. “What is on the top of the agenda this year is energy security. Second climate change regulation and its impact on markets, third mid- to long-term supply uncertainties and fourth new forms of terrorism,” said energy specialist Christophe Frey.

The OPEC incoming president, Edmund Daukoru, last year’s OPEC president are expected to join oil and gas industry chiefs. The ‘energy summit’ events include a private session to a potential oil crisis.