The five-day forum entitled "The New Global Context" will explore outlooks for a world economy, facing cross-currents. Some 2,500 heavyweights from governments and businesses, dubbed the one percent, will attend workshops and hold speeches to restore confidence, as the global economy continues to slow down.
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who is attending, said the stakes could not be higher for policymakers flocking to the alpine resort for the Davos summit conference as "2015 promises to be a make-or-break year."
Top quotes from the opening of Davos 2015 http://t.co/s3QoqiaWdg pic.twitter.com/aAuuPBfEuQ
— World Economic Forum (@Davos) January 20, 2015
Financial power-brokers and heads of state are expected to look into big themes, like dropping oil prices, deteriorating cybersecurity, rising unemployment, the failure to contain the Ebola outbreak and ways to pull the planet from the brink.
Forum participants will be protected by an equal, if not greater, number of security personnel who have been positioned all over the area a day before the start of the forum. Anti-globalization campaigners have pledged to hold massive protests on the opening day, arguing that the summit has long since lost its relevance for the world.
