The 41st session of the World Economic Forum to open in Davos

DAVOS. January 26. KAZINFORM. The 41st session of the World Economic Forum will open in Davos on Wednesday. Europe's highest mountain town located in Swiss Alps will host the heads of state of more than 30 countries, including more than 30 heads of state, such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Eight heads of national banks, 50 heads of leading international organizations, more than 250 representatives of civil society and the heads of dozens of non-governmental organizations.

The Russian delegation comprises Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, First Vice-Premier Igor Shuvalov, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich and Sberbank chief German Gref.

Initially, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was supposed to be the forum's main reporter. But he decided to cut his visit to Switzerland because of this week's bomb blast at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.

"Because of the tragedy the program of my stay in Davos will be considerably cut. I decided to participate in the forum because it's an important international ground for presenting our position," the president said in an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper.

Medvedev believes that Davos is the most famous place for communicating with the heads of state and government and with representatives of the business community.

"Our task is to promote our abilities and openly speak about the strong sides of the Russian economy and our legal system. We should be no less open about our difficulties, weaknesses or unsolved problems. It seems to me that such an open dialogue will provide a better understanding in what state Russia is in," Medvedev emphasized.

"We are really waiting for investments. We want quick recovery and growth in the post-crisis period," President Medvedev stressed.

Medvedev is going to address his speech in Davos to all those who are interested in developing economic ties with Russia, invest money in it, create joint enterprises, search for new points of growth and modernize the Russian economy, Kazinform refers to Itar-Tass (www.itar-tass.com ).

"I am also going to speak about the world we live in, about what we do, the problems of the past decades and with what we should go into the second half of the 21st century," the Russian president said.