Davos Will Brainstorm on Iraq, Dollar (cheney sighting)

[leftchick]

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DAVOS: Hundreds of the world’s most powerful people converge at the ski resort of Davos this week for five days of discussion on topics like Iraq and the weak dollar. US V-P Dick Cheney will speak on Saturday, the penultimate day of the 33rd annual World Economic Forum (WEF), which opens on Wednesday with the theme ‘Security and Prosperity Equals Peace’.

ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, US commerce secretary Donald Evans and Japan ’s economic minister Heizo Takenaka will be in town. They may put their heads together over the falling dollar, setting the stage for a G7 finance ministers’ meeting in early February.

Attempts to relaunch free-trade talks will feature on the agenda, as the Swiss government plans to host a sideline WTO meeting on Friday, which will see over 20 ministers.

Meanwhile, a study released by the WEF and US consultant Watson Wyatt to coincide with the forum said the abundance of workers in developing countries like India and China would help boost global economic growth. In contrast, the EU’s share of economic output is set to almost halve by 2050 as its workforce shrinks. Japan and other rich nations face a similar dilemma. The report estimates that the number of working-age people in India will increase by 335 million by 2030, almost as much as the EU and the US ’ combined workforce in 2000.