The annual World Economic Forum opens on Wednesday in Davos amid global and regional economic worries.

The annual five-day meeting will draw some 2,500 political and business leaders to the Swiss resort. Organizers are optimistic about achieving a roadmap of sorts on the way forward after three years of global financial and economic turmoil. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev postponed his planned departure to Switzerland after the Moscow airport attack, but organizers said he would still give the opening address on Wednesday evening.

Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum, said, "It is the first - I would call it - post-crisis meeting. We have avoided the worst of the crisis, but we have not yet started - really - to build our future. So Davos is the place to look for new reality and to see how we should construct our future.I think this should be a meeting which looks at new reality, which is reality based on the shift of geopolitical power from the north to the south, from the west to the east and I think that is very much reflected in the participation, politically and economically."