This year a number of top-level global elites have skipped the opening Monday of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) meeting in Davos Switzerland.

US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have all skipped this year’s meeting.

Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia has elected not to attend, nor will the elite of the Russian business world, who were not extended invitations due to the sanctions levied against Russia over the ongoing military actions in Ukraine.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has decided to skip the event, as have Chinese businessmen, due to the current crisis in their nation as it battles new outbreaks of Covid-19, as well as difficulties which have been occurring on the domestic stock market, which have cost the wealthiest people in China $224 billion over the last year.

Out of the Group of Seven (G7) leaders, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will be the only leaders attending this year,

Although the list of attending political leaders has shrunk this year, the meetings will be heavily attended by the world’s top managers. According to George Schmitt, the head of digital and marketing at the WEF, examining the 2700 participants taking part in official WEF sessions, “we’re likely to surpass the old record from 2020 with 600 global CEOs – including 1,500 C-suite level overall.”

Bloomberg is reporting that there will be 116 billionaires attending the WEF summit this year, which is 40% more than attended ten years ago. The US delegation will comprise the largest group with 33 delegates. Europe will be contributing 18 billionaires, while India will be sending 13, including the world’s fourth-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, industrialist Gautam Adani,

The World Economic Forum is a not-or profit organization formed in 1971. Its yearly gathering in Davos is the world’s largest annual economics event. The forum will run until January 20th this year.

Photo of World Economic Forum headquarters courtesy of Wikipedia.