Vice-Premier Li Keqiang will attend the 40th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, next week.

Li will join government officials and business leaders from over 90 countries as they meet to discuss the theme "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild."

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, said yesterday in Beijing that Li would address the meeting and discuss with other participants how to keep the world economy moving on the road to recovery.

With the world economy in a critical period of recovery and the foundation of that recovery still not solid, the profound influence of the global financial crisis are still being felt around the world, Ma said.

China hopes the WEF meeting will provide a platform for all parties to explore the lessons learnt from the crisis, as well as resolve contradictions, and overcome trade and investment protectionism.

The forum would also provide the opportunity to discuss practical ways to tackle pressing global issues such as climate change, food and energy security, and put forward feasible and effective suggestions for workable solutions, Ma said.

After the global financial and economic crisis, the world had fundamentally changed and now faced a social crisis, one feature of which was the rising number of jobless people. "We have to look at the meeting in the context of what's happening in the world ... and we see, clearly, that the present system of global cooperation is not working sufficiently," said Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of WEF.

More than 200 working sessions will be held this year including discussions on the global economic situation, the world negotiations on climate change and international cooperation in general. The future of Haiti in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake will also be on the agenda.

"We have to rethink our values - we are living together in a global society with many different cultures. We have to redesign our processes - how do we deal with the issues and challenges on the global agenda. And finally, we have to rebuild our institutions," Schwab said. "Global multi-stakeholder cooperation lies at the heart of the forum's mission to improve the state of the world."

This year's meeting will include some 30 heads of state or government, more than 60 government ministers and more than 100 top officials from international organizations and nongovernmental organizations as well as more than 1,400 top-level executives from the world's leading companies.

China Daily - Xinhua

(China Daily 01/22/2010 page11)