Backgrounder: World Economic Forum    

    BEIJING, Feb. 2 -- The World Economic Forum ended in the Swiss Alps on Sunday with participants reflecting on the gathering that primarily focused on the global economic crisis and ways of dealing with it.

    During the five-day meeting, participants discussed issues ranging from the financial crisis, global trade and climate change.

    Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who spoke at WEF sessions in Davos this week, said the forum was more sombre this year as participants shared their problems.

    Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning Economist, said, "I think quite often the effect is that they get more and more excited in a positive sense about the virtues of globalisation. This time they've got more depressed as they learned about the problems that each of them faced."

    WEF executive chairman Klaus Schwab is not optimistic.

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of World Economic Forum, gestures during the session "Believing in the Dignity of All" at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009 in Davos, Switzerland, Feb. 1, 2009. The World Economic Forum (WEF) wrapped up its annual meeting here Sunday, with pledges of cooperation from world leaders and elites in tackling the global financial crisis. (Xinhua/Remy Steinegger) Photo Gallery>>>

    "From an economic point of view, certainly it's the gloomiest meeting we ever had."

    But he also stressed that global cooperation was needed to put the world's economy back on track.

    Klaus Schwab, WEF Executive Chairman, said, "I think what we have to establish is this notion that we can do it. We can do it. And I think this meeting has provided quite a number of ideas, but the key for it is global cooperation."

    All eyes will now turn to the next G20 meeting for the 20 most powerful industrial nations on earth in London this April. A number of leaders in Davos have said it must be a real forum for making hard decisions.

    (Source: cctv.com)