Heads of state in leading role as bankers avoid limelight

FEWER SENIOR figures from the world of banking are expected to attend the annual Davos forum, which starts today, as government leaders and central bankers are set to dominate the five-day event.

More than 40 heads of state and government, including Taoiseach Brian Cowen, are scheduled to attend the five-day meeting to discuss ways of reviving the global economy and rescuing the world’s crippled banking system.

The number of world leaders travelling to the sleepy Swiss Alpine village is almost double the number who travelled to last year’s gathering in Davos.

The 2009 event, which is organised annually by the World Economic Forum, the Geneva-based think tank is themed: “Shaping the post-crisis world”.

About 1,400 chief executives and chairmen of global corporations will attend – the highest number since the Davos gathering started as a small business and academic think-in in 1971.

However, fewer prominent bank executives are expected to attend as they remain at home to struggle through the ongoing financial crisis and avoid the glitzy image of Davos amid more sober and precarious economic times.

Goldman Sachs won’t be holding its regular Davos party and fewer movie and music stars who bring some glamour to the annual brainstorming session will attend the Swiss event.

U2 singer and anti-poverty campaigner, Bono, who attended Davos last year, will not attend.

Senior bankers who featured at last year’s gathering, including former Lehman Brothers chief executive Dick Fuld and ex-Merrill Lynch boss John Thain, will not be travelling to Davos this year, having lost their jobs in the financial cull since Davos 2008.

Citigroup chief executive Vikram Prandit and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs have chosen not to travel this year.

Irish businessmen who will be among 2,500 participants scheduled to attend include AIB chairman Dermot Gleeson and telecoms and media tycoon Denis O’Brien. While Bank of Ireland chief executive Brian Goggin, who announced last week that he will retire later this year, was scheduled to attend a bank spokesman said this was now unlikely.

Peter Sutherland, chairman of Goldman Sachs International and energy giant BP, and Sligo-born Niall FitzGerald, deputy chairman of media company, Thomson Reuters, will travel to Davos.

Ireland’s EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin will also attend the Swiss gathering.

Among the well-known executives attending are media mogul Rupert Murdoch; former Microsoft boss Bill Gates; Google co-founder, Larry Page, and Dell chief executive Michael Dell.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will open the meeting on Wednesday. Among other leaders present will be British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to US president Barack Obama, will also attend.

This will be the first time that world leaders will meet to discuss the deepening economic crisis since the G20 group of large and emerging countries gathered in Washington DC last November.

Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, one of the meeting’s co-chairmen, said the world needed politicians and business leaders to co-operate to find solutions.

“They need to work together. But I think the pendulum is swinging toward an increasing role for governments,” he said.

Some 36 finance ministers and central bankers, including the heads of the central banks from the G8 group of wealthy nations, except the US, will attend.

While the focus will be on the world economy, security issues, including the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, will also be on the agenda, as will climate change. (Additional reporting – Reuters)