The World Economic Forum's (WEF) Inaugural Annual Meeting of New Champions, dubbed Summer Davos meeting, is to open in China's northeast city of Dalian on Thursday.

Slated for Sept. 6 to 8 with the focus of roles the new generation of fast-growing multinational companies are playing, the WEF summer meeting is expected to draw together some 1,700 government officials, scholars and business leaders from 90 countries and regions.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will deliver a keynote speech at the start of the meeting.

More than 20 ministerial officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, and State Intellectual Property Office, as well as Liaoning provincial and Tianjin municipal officials will gather at the meeting.

Participants will discuss major issues during the three-day session, including shifting global business environment, China's economic development, and how businesses go global, said Jeremy Jurgens, head of the World Economic Forum Beijing Office.

The meeting is so called after the brainstorming WEF annual meeting held in Davos, a Swiss ski resort since the 1970s.

The major port, industrial, trade and tourism city of Dalian has been well prepared for the meeting with logos for Summer Davos hung on the city's main buildings, bus stops and even taxis. Ten leading hotels in the city have been tightly booked for the event. Local police have tightened patrol around the major venue.

(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2007)