Major world issues under limelight as Davos forum opens

A Swiss special police officer patrols on a roof during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 22, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

MAJOR TOPICS

In a welcome message on Tuesday night, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF, said he expected participants of the 2014 Davos forum, including over 1,500 business leaders and over 40 heads of state or government, to bring brain, soul, compassion and nerves to the event.

At a pre-event press conference earlier this month, Schwab used three phrases to summarize the characteristics of the global context -- cautious optimism, diminished expectations, and many known unknowns.

The confidence in the world's economic performance is slowly coming back, but many problems remain such as large fiscal deficits faced by certain countries, said Schwab.

He meanwhile predicted relatively slow growth in the coming period, maybe five to 10 years. But he cautioned that even if the world could get out of the crisis, the growth rate would not be restored to the pre-crisis level.

He also stressed the dominance of fundamental and underlining development issues such as employment for the human society, adding that this year's meeting will also focus on one single crisis and other hot issues.

"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," said Schwab.

At more than 250 sessions and workshops during the forum, participants are to 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 9 billion.