Present problems may trump industrial innovation at Davos

The organisers of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, want those attending to focus on the challenges of the future: the theme of this year's annual meeting is Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a catch-all rubric that describes advances in technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics.

The problems of the here and now, though, are likely to be a more popular topic of discussion.

Among the assembled politicians, CEOs and financiers will be many key players in simmering global crises, including China's stock market meltdown, the emerging cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and Russia's economic slump.

They will be meeting a couple of weeks after billionaire George Soros, a Davos stalwart, warned that the China-induced turmoil in financial markets is starting to remind him of "the crisis we had in 2008".

Others are also voicing concerns. "This is a very stressful time," says John Veihmeyer, the global chairman of consulting firm KPMG International, who is heading to Davos. "Geopolitical risks are becoming much more relevant, and concern about them is accelerating."

Undoubtedly, one of the most in-demand guests at this year's forum, which runs from Wednesday to Saturday, will be Fang Xinghai, the vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, who has the unenviable task of supervising the gyrating stock markets of the world's second-largest economy.

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He is appearing on the second day of the conference, at a panel discussion on how China's economy can "shift gears without stalling", which also features Ray Dalio, the founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, and IMF MD Christine Lagarde.

Russia, another country looking to keep the confidence of international investors, is also well represented. It has dispatched central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina, who is joined by executives from state-controlled lenders Sberbank, VTB Bank, and Vnesheconombank - all still under US and European sanctions.

Nabiullina is participating in a session on Saturday on "the global debt dilemma", a suitable topic for a country trying to contain a budget deficit that has ballooned with the collapse in oil prices.

Davos delegates hoping for insight into the spiralling conflicts in the Middle East are unlikely to be disappointed. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who led his country's talks with world powers to win a nuclear deal, will be wandering the halls of the Congress Centre.

It may be hard for him to avoid bumping into officials from arch-rival Saudi Arabia, including his counterpart, Adel Al-Jubeir. Prince Turki Al Faisal, Saudi's former intelligence chief and a former ambassador to Washington, will head a panel on understanding Islam.

Eager not to miss a chance to buttonhole so many key negotiating partners in its last year in office, the Obama administration is dispatching its most high-ranking delegation to Davos.

Vice-President Joe Biden is to be accompanied by John Kerry, Jacob Lew, and Ashton Carter - the secretaries of state, the treasury and defence, respectively.

Both Biden and Kerry will give solo speeches, an honour typically reserved for top heavyweights.

However, Kerry and Biden will not get a chance to push North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions during their visit. An invitation for the reclusive state's leaders to attend was rescinded after it tested what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb earlier this month.

The detonation signalled that there would "at the moment be no opportunity" for constructive dialogue with leader Kim Jong-un's officials, WEF managing board member Philipp Roesler said at a press conference in Geneva this week.

Traditionally, Davos has been embraced as a platform for rebranding by companies and governments looking to burnish their reputations, and this year is no exception.

Argentina's new president, Mauricio Macri, is headed to the conference with his finance and foreign affairs ministers, looking to convince investors that his country, which has defaulted on its debts at least seven times, has turned an economic corner.

Further star power will be supplied by Justin Trudeau, Canada's new prime minister and a reliable selfie magnet.

He is leading a much larger than normal delegation of ministers, mayors, and executives from the major US trading partner, and he is also joining a panel on gender parity in the economy, along with Melinda Gates, the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, both Davos regulars.