Davos Guest List Unites Li and Kerry With Ma and Sandberg
(Bloomberg) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be among the political heavyweights attending next week’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Li will lead China’s highest-level delegation since 2009 to the meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, while Kerry will be the most senior U.S. official to attend since President Barack Obama took office.
The forum, which takes place from Jan. 21 to Jan. 24, will draw some 2,500 participants from more than 140 countries, the Geneva-based organization said today. The falling oil price, Russia’s incursion in Ukraine, the likelihood of quantitative easing in Europe and the renewed threat of terrorism are topics set to be discussed.
“The World Economic Forum serves the international community as a platform for public-private cooperation,” said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the forum. “Such cooperation, to address the challenges we all face, is more vital than ever before.”
Among business leaders attending are Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook Inc.
Economic policy makers present will include International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney and Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer.
Russia’s delegation won’t be headed by either the president or prime minister for the first time since 2012, with the country suffering international sanctions over the annexation of Crimea. Attending the forum this year will be First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.
High-profile delegates at this year’s forum will be transported to Davos via helicopter, the Swiss army said Jan. 8.
–With assistance from Olga Tanas in Moscow and Simon Kennedy in London.
To contact the reporters on this story: Simeon Bennett in Geneva at sbennett9@bloomberg.net; Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O’Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net Zoe Schneeweiss, Ben Sills
