By IANS,
New Delhi : Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will head this year’s Indian delegation to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) five-day annual meeting at Davos in Switzerland from Jan 28 that comes against the backdrop of one of the worst global financial crises in decades.
The event, in the Alpine settings of the snow-clad ski resort, will see the participation of some 2,500 delegates from 96 countries, who will also get a chance to hear nearly 40 heads of states and government.
During the visit, the Indian minister is expected to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts and key ministers from countries like Australia, Germany, the US, New Zealand, Brazil and Thailand, where the global trade talks will be one of the main topics of discussion, officials here said.
The organisers have also planned a special session at the meeting with the theme: “Shaping the Post Crisis World”. This will be addressed by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Jan 28.
“The objective of the annual meeting 2009 is to catalyse a holistic and systematic approach to improve the state of the world in a manner that integrates all stakeholders of global society,” the organisers said.
Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman of automobile giant Mahindra and Mahindra, is one of the co-chairs of the event. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is the forum’s India partner. Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and media mogul Rupert Murdoch are also among the co-chairs.
The Indian contingent to the meeting, according to the WEF, includes ICICI Bank chairman and CII president K.V. Kamath, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Wipro chairman Azim Premji and Infosys chief executive K. Gopalakrishnan.