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GENEVA, Jan 24 (AFP): After drawing political heavyweights and flirting with Hollywood stars, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum will return to its roots on Wednesday by giving business concerns centre stage.
About half of the 2,340 participants invited to the select five-day gathering of the world's political and business elite in the eastern Swiss Alpine resort of Davos will be corporate executives, the organisers said.
Coinciding with a renewed surge in oil prices to close to 70 dollars a barrel, a survey of the business participants -- including a record 735 chief executives or chairpeople -- revealed widespread concern about tight energy supplies.
This year's president of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Edmund Daukoru of Nigeria -- where unrest is sparking oil markets along with concern about Iran -- is scheduled for his first major public appearance in Davos.
He is due to be accompanied by outgoing president Kuwaiti Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah, while oil and gas industry chiefs have also been given greater elbow room this year.
Executives also acknowledged the growing economic weight of China and India in the internal survey, prompting invitations to substantial delegations from both Asian giants in the Swiss resort.
"These countries are transforming more rapidly than the developed economies did and the knowledge and potential of their people appear limitless," said James Turley, chief executive of global consultants Ernst and Young on the WEF's website.
"Chinese and Indian companies have started to expand beyond their home markets and some of these will become global leaders in the coming years," he added.
China's Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan, who also holds the keys to the country's five-year economic planning cycle, will follow freshly elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel in opening the summit.
However, a repeat of last year's agenda-setting initiatives on tackling poverty or global warming is regarded as unlikely in the absence of other major political movers and shakers from the United States or Europe.
Middle Eastern peace brokers are focused on elections in Palestine and Israel and Brazilian President Lula Ignacio da Silva has also decided to cut short his run of Davos appearances in an election year.
The business community is looking to Merkel's keynote speech Wednesday for a response to their frustration with Europe's traditional economic powers.
"Asia and Eastern Europe are in the fast lane and Western Europe is under considerable pressure. So therefore Western European states have to become more creative in how they deal with restructuring," said Martin Sorell, chief executive of British advertising group WPP and a co-chairman of this year's forum.
"If you believe that 35-hour working weeks are more important than economic growth then you have to remember what the costs of that will be," he added, referring to labour legislation in France.
French Economics and Finance Minister Thierry Breton and his British counterpart Gordon Brown are expected in Davos, the organisers said.
Other political figures include Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Despite an expected appearance by International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, WEF executive chairman Klaus Schwab admitted distaste with "politicised" issues such as the nuclear standoff between the West and Iran.
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