Sober assessments of the future health of the global economy topped the agenda yesterday as some 2,500 business and political leaders gathered for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF).
Participants were set to hear from a who's who of the economic and finance industries, including Stephen Roach, the chairman of investment and financial firm Morgan Stanley's Asia operations and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the managing director of the Washington-based World Bank.
The impact of the sluggish economy and what it may portend for other nations hung over the event, even after the US Federal Reserve Bank cut its benchmark refinancing rate to 3.5 percent from 4.25 percent in response to the latest in the global market meltdown.
But the meeting, now in its 38th year, will touch on other issues affecting the world this year and beyond, including stemming terrorism, pursuing a workable peace process in the Middle East and focusing on how technology is ushering in a new age of social networking that knows no borders.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Afghan President Hamid Karzai were scheduled to address the WEF's opening reception later yesterday. In a nod to concern about climate change, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to speak. Former US vice president Al Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the IPCC, is also participating in the five-day meeting.
But unlike previous meetings, when the global economy was moving along at full steam, efforts to stave off a slowdown will play a bigger role.
Andre Schneider, chief operating officer and managing director of the WEF, said on Tuesday that economic developments would be a big part of the agenda.
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