World leaders and hundreds of top financial and corporate chiefs are gathering for the annual Davos forum amid new warnings over the gravity of the global recession.
The avalanche of bad news in recent months has turned this World Economic Forum into one of the most gloomy held since the meetings at the Swiss mountain-top resort started nearly four decades ago.
Chinese and Russian premiers Wen Jiabao and Vladimir Putin are to give the keynote opening speeches at the start of the five-day event later today.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the British and Japanese prime ministers Gordon Brown and Taro Aso are also among about 40 heads of state or government who will speak this week.
Some countries will use the heavily-guarded Davos crisis retreat to seek help.
But with much attention on US President Barack Obama's efforts to get a $825bn stimulus package through Congress, grim predictions for the efforts made so far to repair the world economy were made as soon as debates started.
South Africa's Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said developed nations appeared to be adopting a ‘lemming-like approach, trying to get to the precipice without knowing what their money would buy.’
He said there was a real risk wealthy nations would come out of the crisis with massive debts.
Davos delegates were also seeing new signs that the battle against the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s was becoming ever tougher.
Confidence among chief executives at more than 1,100 top companies around the world has ‘plummeted’, according to a survey by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, released in Davos.
The main theme of the forum will be ‘Shaping the Post-Crisis World’ and its founder Klaus Schwab said the crisis highlighted the need to reform financial institutions and systems.
