Russian President Medvedev to open the Annual Meeting in Davos

The World Economic Forum today presented the programme of the 41st World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. The theme of the Meeting, which will take place from 26 to 30 January, is “Shared Norms for the New Reality”. Over the five-day Meeting, over 2,500 leaders from over 100 countries will convene in Davos-Klosters, representing business, government, civil society, academia and culture.

"The shifts of political and economic power from West to East and from North to South, as well as the speed of technological innovation, have created a completely new reality. Global systems and decision models can no longer cope with the speed and complexity of all these changes. In Davos this year, instead of looking only at the aftershocks of the recent crisis, we will concentrate on defining the new reality and discuss which shared norms are required for making global cooperation possible in this new age," said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum.

Speaking at a press conference at the World Economic Forum’s headquarters in Geneva, Schwab went on to say: "The Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, which is the only global summit to deal in a comprehensive way with all the challenges on the global agenda, will also propose ideas and solutions for the G20 process. In addition, it will mark the launch of a Risk Response Network, creating a mechanism for public and private leaders to recognize systemic risks and to mitigate them before crisis situations occur."

The theme of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting has four interconnected pillars, which are::
1.     Responding to the New Reality
2.     The Economic Outlook and Defining Policies for Inclusive Growth
3.     Supporting the G20 Agenda
4.     Building a Risk Response Network

A major focus of this year’s meeting will be how to deal with global risks, develop risk mitigation strategies and capture related opportunities. The World Economic Forum will present its Risk Response Network at the Annual Meeting, which will serve as a preparatory, analytical and highly practical framework for the global community in the service of improving global risk management. The Risk Response Network is a platform designed to better understand, manage and respond to complex, interdependent risk.

Over 1,400 business leaders from the Forum’s 1,000 Member companies will take part in the Annual Meeting. Participants also include over 35 heads of state or government, with 19 of the G20 governments represented at ministerial level or higher. They are joined by government ministers, central bankers, top officials from international organizations, labour leaders, religious leaders, representatives of civil society, media and leading academics. (Download an abridged list of participants http://wef.ch/participants])

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will be opening the Annual Meeting 2011 and he will answer your questions during the Opening Plenary. To submit your question go to http://wef.ch/AskDmitriMedvedev. A selection of the top voted questions will be put to President Medvedev on Wednesday 26 January 2011 at 18.30CET (17:30GMT). You can watch the session live at http://wef.ch/live.