|
 Among the participants at this year's event, which runs from Jan 22
to 25, are British Prime Minister David Cameron, Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and presidents including South Korea's Park
Geun-hye, Ukraine's Viktor Yanukovich, Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto
and Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu will both be speaking and it would be logistically
possible for an encounter between the two leaders whose countries
are traditional foes.
Central bankers Mark Carney, Mario Draghi and Haruhiko Kuroda and
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew are also taking part, as well as
IMF chief Christine Lagarde and World Bank boss Jim Yong Kim.
The 2,500 participants include the heads of all major international
organizations and more than half the chief executives of the 1,000
largest companies, including Goldman Sachs <GS.N> chairman and CEO
Lloyd Blankfein and Coca-Cola <KO.N> chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent.
More high-level guests are expected to be announced in the next few
days. Others who could drop by include U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who will be
attending the opening of Syrian peace talks in Montreux, at the
other end of Switzerland, on January 22.
"DISRUPTORS"
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will be the only head of state
from the BRIC nations to attend. India is sending a delegation
including Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, while Russia
will be represented by its finance minister and two deputy prime
ministers.
China is sending Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice chairman of its National
Development and Reform Commission, but Klaus Schwab, who heads the
World Economic Forum that runs the event, said there would be a
"senior leader" from China who was not yet on the published guest
list.
[to top of second column] |
Rousseff's opponents in Brazil's October election will not be
present. Also missing from the line-up are new Federal Reserve chief
Janet Yellen, and previous Davos fixtures such as Angela Merkel and
Rupert Murdoch.
Schwab likes to include "disruptors" in the guest list — including
Internet entrepreneurs and activists — and will give the
participants a chance to experience the rougher side of life in a
mock-up refugee camp in the Alpine resort, as well as a special
simulation of life as a Syrian refugee in Jordan.
But Davos will not have any representatives of some of the past
year's biggest disruptors, such as Edward Snowden, Julian Assange or
Pussy Riot, nor has Russia's newly-freed ex-tycoon Mikhail
Khodorkovsky been invited.
"As far as Mr Khodorkovsky's concerned we certainly could consider
an invitation next year, but we first have to be clear what his
future is, and that's not yet very obvious," Schwab said.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by
Stephanie Nebehay)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
