2500 business leaders and politician are gathering in Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum.

Founder of the 10-year-old conference says this year's meeting focuses on financial reform, environment protection and the Haiti earthquake.

Zhang Ru has more:

The annual forum, held in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, is a chance for world elites of politics and business to discuss the globe's problems and possible solutions.

The five-day forum is themed Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild.

Professor Klaus Schwab, the founder of the forum elaborates on the focuses of the forum.

"There are three gravity centers. One is financial reforms and the situation of the economy in general, second will be Haiti and the third one will be the environment after the semi-failure of the Copenhagen conference."

He warned leaders attending the forum to pay heed to the growing social issues, such as unemployment, that pose a risk to countries across the globe.

"We have fiscal deficits but we also have budgets as far as households are concerned. We'll have unemployment, more unemployment so this will lead to a fragility to society. And what we want to achieve here is that business leaders but also political leaders are aware of this problem and of course foster in some way greater social solidarity."

Reuters 'Breaking Views' columnist Peter Thal Larsen says the post-recession role of banks will be a hot topic, especially following U.S. President Obama's plan to carve up those deemed too-big-to-fail.

"The financial system has been saved, the world economies are beginning to come out of recession but a lot of the risks still remain and what we have is a banking system that is basically on life support. These global imbalances are still in place and haven't really been addressed and what you have now is a mounting political backlash against the banking system as exemplified by President Obama's recent actions."

French President Nicholas Sarkozy opens the event. Speakers include South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Former US President Bill Clinton is expected to attend and spearhead a drive to harness funds for Haiti.

But with a weak global recovery, a fierce battle over banking regulation and the earthquake disaster, some leaders have thought twice about attending.

Zhang Ru, CRI news.