Davos talks to open amid hesitancy

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  DAVOS - Heads of government and corporate chiefs meet in Davos from Thursday to mull over geopolitical uncertainties and a crisis of confidence in the global economy, while thousands of their critics are expected to converge in Brazil.

Brazil's new president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, will provide the only visible link between the 33rd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss Alpine resort and the World Social Forum in his homeland.

Lula, a former trade unionist, will head for Switzerland after he takes part in the Brazilian event alongside an expected 100,000 critics of globalisation.

Both meetings are taking place against the backdrop of the threat of a war in Iraq, with the chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix due to present his first report on Baghdad's compliance to the UN Security Council on January 27.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell will take part in the WEF on January 26.

Yet the climate differs substantially on either side of the equator.

The World Social Forum appears to have reached cruising speed, with its organisers moving away from a purely oppositional, anti-globalisation stance to speak of "putting change into action".

Porto Alegre, a largely public event, has grown and gained confidence two years after it was set up as an alternative to the elite, clubbish gathering in Davos.

More than 100,000 people from 157 countries are expected in the Brazilian port city, along with 5,000 organisations under the banner "Another world is possible".

Meanwhile, Davos's slogan, "Building Trust" betrays declining confidence.

The 2,150 mainly corporate and political guests from 99 countries - including 29 heads of state or government, 81 ministers - will gather behind a series of fences and checkpoints.

Media reports suggest that this year, the WEF has had trouble convincing important figures to turn up.

The event will be dominated by the Americas, with a large US contingent including Powell, Attorney-General John Ashcroft and chief executives of major US corporations.

They will be joined by several Latin American heads of state including Lula, Argentinian President Eduardo Duhalde, and Colombia President Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Security has been boosted and for the first time the Swiss authorities are warning that unauthorised aircraft entering a no-fly zone around the resort could be shot down.

The Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve described the 14 million Swiss franc ($10.2-million) spent on security as "the largest security operation ever set up in peacetime in Switzerland".

The WEF has also been stirred by question marks hanging over the business world, following US corporate scandals over the past year, as well as the possible economic impact of a war in Iraq.

Three decades after he founded the WEF, Klaus Schwab, president of the meeting, said he could not remember the meeting taking place "at such a special moment in time, of such complexity, fragility and vulnerability in the global situation".

He has also played down the role of the Davos forum, saying it is "not a decision-making body, not a place to negotiate".

A few Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) have been invited while more social themes will be debated at an "Open Forum" unusually open to the public.

This year's meeting will also go without its traditional gala evening. However, most NGOs will hold their debates at the alternative "Public Eye on Davos" gathering just outside the conference centre.

The Swiss authorities have allowed a demonstration by anti-globalisation activists to take place in the resort on Saturday. 

AFP