President Jacob Zuma left for Davos, Switzerland on Monday where he will lead a South African delegation to the World Economic Forum (WEF) from January 26 to January 31.

Organised under the theme "Improve the State of the World: Rethink Redesign and Rebuild," this year's annual meeting came within the context of promoting a global system of governance, the International Relations and Cooperation Department said in a statement on Monday.

"The pressure to rethink, redesign and rebuild has increased along with concern over the current state of the world financial markets," it said.

The fiscal and monetary prescriptions to ease the pain of global economic shocks were now fuelling anxieties about the creation of new economic bubbles.

Moreover, the demographic, behavioural and technological changes linked to the collapse in global demand were challenging basic assumptions about the nascent recovery.

In addition, weaknesses of governance systems, exposed by the financial crisis, were mostly unchanged with respect to looming global risks such as climate change, nuclear proliferation and pandemics.

The meeting aimed to focus on six areas of inquiry and their global, regional and industry dimensions.

These were strengthening economic and social welfare, mitigating global risks and addressing systematic failures, ensuring sustainability, ensuring security, creating a values framework, and building effective institutions.

Zuma was expected to hold, on the margins of the forum, a series of bilateral meetings with other participating Heads of State and government, as well as representatives from private corporations.

Zuma would be accompanied by Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, senior government officials, and a business delegation.

Following the WEF, Zuma was expected to depart for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he would lead a delegation to the 14th Ordinary Session of the African Union Summit.